Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith

Trade Canoe: Fry Bread

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith created this sculpture in collaboration with her son Neal Ambrose-Smith (b. 1966). It features the framework of a canoe, filled with circular pieces of deep-fried dough. The sculpture mimics the shape of canoes traditionally crafted by many Native communities and later adopted by Euro-Americans to transport items. Smith’s community, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation in western Montana, was among the Native people confined to reservation land and forced to survive on goods sent upstream by the US government. According to the artists, the US government sent disease-infested blankets and spoiled foods to their communities in such canoes in an effort to eradicate their people. Their communities received moldy flour, which they mixed with water and fried in lard to create what’s known as fry bread. Despite fry bread’s lack of nutritional value and links to diabetes and heart disease, it remains an adored staple food among Native people across the country. Through this work, the artists symbolically offer the supplies transformed into edible sustenance back to the US government, gesturing that they no longer need it.