In 2018 Valene Hatathlie was working towards her Master’s Degree from Arizona State University while holding down a full-time job.
After getting laid off from her job, Val had to find another way to pay for tuition, program fees, and books. Initially, she tried selling her woven twill rugs, but there wasn’t much demand for her first venture.
As fate would have it, she overheard an event coordinator at the Native Art Market mention that the market needed a frybread vendor. It turned out to be one of those entrepreneurial ‘a-ha moments.’
Growing up, Val was the frybread specialist in her family; she had been making it for as long as she could remember. Val asked the event coordinator if she could start selling frybread, and the next weekend, her stand was set up at the Native Art Market and Val’s Frybread was officially in business.
The demand for her traditional, Navajo bread exceeded her highest expectations. She was able to use the revenue for tuition and graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2020. Since then, Val’s Frybread has grown from a little, family-run stand into multiple, pop-up locations.
The Pandemic through another curveball at Val and her plans. In early 2020, she was forced to cancel an event in Colorado. After joking with her graphic designer, Justin Gilbert of Kuvua Designs, about making a frybread mix and mailing it to Colorado, she decided that might just be the way forward. To overcome the challenges of COVID-19, Val started making mixes and shipping them throughout the U.S. and Canada. What started as a joke became a big part of her revenue, and her online store is thriving in 2022.
Val’s continues to offer the tastiest, fluffiest, most perfect frybread available. Customers can enjoy it however they like with honey, powdered sugar, cinnamon, salt, or all the above.
Just as the history of frybread represents resilience, Val’s is here today because of one woman’s determination and passion for sharing a treat with others.
The History of Frybread
The look, texture, and taste of frybread are a little different depending on where you are in the world. In the continental U.S., indigenous people created a version of frybread because we had no other choice.
Quite honestly, the origin of this tasty treat in North America is one of oppression and tragedy. However, we must not lose sight of the events that led to the creation of frybread – it is our duty to remind people of how it came to be.
In the 19th century, the United States Calvary forced tribal members into concentration camps. These poor souls were grieving because they were forced from everything they knew and had to walk from their homeland to the concentration camps, often more than 100 miles away. Cavalry soldiers would execute our people if they could not keep up on the journey from their land to the concentration camps. Countless pregnant women, children, and elderly tribal members died from starvation, abuse, and murder at the hands of calvary soldiers.
While imprisoned, the calvary only provided our people with rations like sugar, flour, lard, and coffee. These rations were not part of our traditional diets, and with no other forms of sustenance, women did not know how to turn them into food. Perhaps the only positive thing that may be said about the history of frybread is it symbolizes the resilience of indigenous peoples – the women made do with what they had. They mixed the flour with water and created the first version of North American frybread – it kept many of our ancestors alive.
We make our frybread from a recipe passed down from Val’s grandmother. Val’s is more than a snack; it is a taste of our ancestors’ perseverance, grit, and determination.
