Bannock (Indigenous American food)

Did You Know?

• Alutiiq alatiq comes from the word for 'pancakes, fritters.'
• Bannock is generally prepared with white or whole-wheat flour, baking powder, sugar, lard and water or milk, then fried, baked, or cooked on a stick.
• The term 'bread that bubbles' refers to bread cooked in fat, where 'bááh' is a borrowing for flour and yeast bread.

Origins

Before outsiders arrived, Indigenous North Americans may have already been making a food from maize, roots, and tree sap. Camas bulbs, which can be used to make bannocks, helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition survive. Some accounts say bannock first appeared in North America in the 1860s, invented by Navajo people held at Fort Sumner. Other accounts credit fur traders with bringing bannock to tribes, with the name itself coming from Scotland.

Political significance

Bannock is the most universal dish in the Indigenous Canadian repertoire, used in the Arctic, Plains, subarctic, and Pacific cultural areas. Modern recipes are clearly influenced by government rations distributed on Indian reserves in the late 19th century, when access to country foods was restricted by non-Indigenous settlers. Those rations included wheat flour, sugar, lard, and butter—high-calorie, low-nutrient, shelf-stable foods. These ingredients helped Indigenous people survive the loss of country foods, and are now seen by some as fully part of Indigenous identity, while for others they are a reminder of colonialism and regarded as an imposition.

Relationship with Indigenous peoples

The history and political significance of bannock has changed over the years in North America, holding great significance from pre-contact to the present. Regional variations included different types of flour and the addition of dried or fresh fruit, with cooking methods such as pit-cooking in sand, baking in clay or rock ovens, or toasting on a stick over an open fire. Bannock's functionality made it simple to cook and consume while hunting, trapping, fishing, or gathering. European colonization dramatically changed traditional ways, turning bannock from a food of function for travel into a necessary staple when Indigenous people were forced onto reserves and lost traditional food sources. Government rations of flour and lard replaced traditional methods, leading to loss of indigenous knowledge of edible plants and the alteration of bannock recipes.