Portland’s Indigenous Marketplace hosted its second annual Frybread Fest on Nov. 8. The event took place at Director Park, filling it with colors and traditions to celebrate Native American Heritage Month.
Downtown Portland Clean & Safe pitched Frybread Fest to Lluvia Merello, the executive director of Portland Indigenous Marketplace, in 2024. The two organizations share similar beliefs in uplifting local culture and businesses, focusing especially on marginalized communities.
Downtown Portland Clean & Safe considered hosting a Thanksgiving event, but employee Kayla Floyd saw an opportunity “to do something more meaningful.” That was how the Frybread Fest first began in 2024.
The two women share Native American ancestry, with Floyd being part of the Mvskoke and Tsalagi Tribes and Merello identifying as Quechua and Andean/Incan. Their love for their culture came together with Frybread Fest, an event that celebrates the intricacies of Indigenous culture in America.
The event featured food and drink, live music and storytelling performances, six community resource booths and 20 arts vendors selling handmade jewelry, clothing, baskets and fine crafts.
In 2024, the event welcomed an estimated 5,500 attendees and one frybread vendor who sold out by early afternoon. This year, the event added three additional frybread vendors. Floyd estimated their attendance was between 8,000 and 10,000 people.
According to Merello, frybread is a newer tradition in Indigenous American communities, with its younger history tied to colonial origins. Originally cooked using rations sent to reservations by the United States military, it has evolved into a cultural staple, with every tribe developing its own recipe.
Preserving and embracing traditions
Sierra Freeman, a second-year music performance and violin master’s student at the University of Oregon, has had a table at every event hosted by the Portland Indigenous Marketplace since she first signed up in January.
“I come from two long lines of jewelry-makers. Both sides of my family…were silversmiths at first,” Freeman, a member of the Navajo Nation, said.
Freeman spent her summers at roadside stands selling with her grandmother. Her style, she said, was the result of back-and-forth collaboration with her family.=
“We lean on each other to give each other ideas on how we make things, then we do constructive criticism of what we can do better,” Freeman said.
Linda Higgins, a member of the Yakama Tribe’s Wenatche-pum branch, had a vendor booth and information table where she demonstrated basket-making techniques. Higgins’ family has been basket-weaving for generations, with her great-grandmother being regarded as a master basket weaver
“It’s just a lifelong learning project,” she said. “I’ll just keep practicing and get better.”
Higgins does not regard herself as a master in basket weaving, but will continue to teach the craft and revive its histor
“This was a dying art,” she said. “It’s been revived, and it’s thriving.”
Keeping the culture
Additionally, the fest hosted storyteller and former UO student Ed Edmo of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, who shared traditional tales with an audience of children and adults. Edmo actively encouraged participation, having listeners repeat colorful descriptions of monsters and animals that feature as prominent characters in Indigenous stories.
In 2023, Edmo was named an Oregon culture keeper by the Oregon Folklife Network, a traditional arts program that works in tandem with UO, state facilities and local community partners to “document, support and celebrate” the state’s traditions.
Edmo considers himself a storyteller, although his official title recognizes his efforts in practicing, passing on and preserving shared traditions, according to the organization’s website.
The Multnomah County Library had its own booth, featuring a broad selection of modern Indigenous books. Outreach Specialist and Blackfeet Nation Member Michael Fast Buffalo Horse said this was the library’s first year in attendance. Of the books on display, they selected “The Art of Making,” by Jared Tailfeathers –– a book written by a member of their tribe.
“There’s very few books written by people in my tribe, so I’m always excited to see a book from somebody where I’m from,” Fast Buffalo Horse said.
Both the Multnomah County Library and the Portland Indigenous Marketplace have upcoming events celebrating Native American Heritage Month and traditions throughout the remainder of the year.On Nov. 28 and 29, the Portland Indigenous Marketplace will host their winter sales event. The library offers weekly Native Friends and Family Storytime for children up to the age of six every Tuesday at various locations in the Portland metro area.
