APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. — A Valley woman wanting to help her husband pay the bills while she finished her master's degree started selling fry bread.
Valene Hatathlie's small business venture is still going strong. And Hatathlie employs college students, who are trying to make ends meet.
Hatathlie's fry bread comfort food draws crowds with its mouthwatering smell and then hooks people in with its taste. She owns Val’s Frybread and said although the dish is a fan favorite, it reflects a very difficult era in her Native American history.
“During the time that the U.S. Calvary had rounded up most Native American tribes and put them into concentration camps," Hatathlie said.
The U.S. government then gave Native Americans rations like flour and sugar. Her ancestors using some of it to create fry bread.
“It’s basically a bread that was created out of an oppressive time," Hatathlie said.
Although the bread’s origination comes from darker days, today it’s still a favorite for many. And Val launched her fry bread favorite recipe into a thriving business.
“At the time, I wasn’t working, my husband was the only one working and I felt a little guilty that I wasn’t contributing," she said.
In school at the time, Val’s Fry Bread started taking off at Scottsdale’s Native Arts Market.
“At the end of the day I went up to her and I was like, I can make fry bread, I’ll be your vendor," Hatathlie said.
Today, now graduated with a master’s from ASU, Valene can be found at the market whipping up this recipe her grandmother first showed her.
“Sales do get intense," she said. "Sometimes you don’t even have time to look up. You just start and you’re taking orders all day long,” she said.
Outside the food stand, Val works to get her fry bread mix on store shelves. And she employs Native college students looking for a job.
“College is difficult. It is a struggle," Hatathlie said. "Sometimes you just need a little extra funds to make ends meet at the end of the semester.”
With her team of college students by her side, Val sells up a storm in the Valley and has plans to take her Navajo tacos on the road.
“My goal is to travel all over the place and just sell fry bread," she said.
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