By Marilyn Craig, John Hair Cultural Center and Keetoowah Museum Marketing Coordinator
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Dondi Adkins has been making frybread for several decades. She recently shared her knowledge with UKB employees at a "Lunch and Learn" session at the John Hair Culture Center and Keetoowah Museum.
Adkins began making frybread at 16 or 17 after her father passed away, helping her mother, UKB Tradition Keeper Betty Holcomb, who worked to support her five daughters. "As the oldest, I helped cook and take care of the girls when mom was at work," Adkins said. "We were stair steps, with about two years between ages. Mom had a firm hand raising us — she was strict, but a good, nurturing strict. She’s always been a good mom."
Adkins' interest in frybread deepened when she married at 20. Her husband was Otoe, Delaware, and Quapaw. "They make their frybread different," she explained. "What's the difference between a Cherokee-made Indian taco and an Otoe one? One thing is grease. They use lard. And a lot of it. Deep-fried bread is a little bit lighter and fluffier, and Cherokee bread is a little bit denser. I think it's about the same amount of baking powder. But it's not just salt in the bread taste. I guess it's the little bit of sugar and milk they add. My mother-in-law said sugar is what makes your bread a little browner and crispier."
When Adkins moved to Red Rock with her husband, she learned even more about bread-making from her full-blood Otoe mother-in-law, especially while preparing for a funeral feast. "That's when I found out there was so much more to making bread than just mixing your dough. I made bread for about 200 people before the funeral, and that's a lot of bread. That's about 20 pounds of flour," she said.
Adkins recounted her first experience helping her Aunt Blondie at another funeral feast. "When you start making bread with those women there, you start on the bottom. That means you are the bread cooker, and that means you stand there by the grease and flip the bread, take it out and put it into your basket. I was taking the bread out and just tossing it into the basket. I was about ready to pick one out and throw it down into the basket again and she basically kind of slapped my hand and told me, 'You do not throw food.'"
Her aunt emphasized the importance of emotion in cooking, saying, "This bread is to be made with love because this is going to feed people who are mourning, and we must have all kinds of good feelings into this bread. You do not throw my bread. She said when you're making bread, don't go in with negative feelings, because your bad feelings are going into your meal, which will make bread turn out poorly. Make your food with good feelings, because all those good feelings are going into the food, and everybody getting your bread feels good. That's why mom or grandma's food is so good. It really is the love that makes it great," Adkins concluded.
Comments