Frybread

Stephanie Woodard of Indian Country Today:

INTERIOR, S.D. - It's a cold, overcast winter day in South Dakota's rugged Badlands, with just enough of a breeze to remind you that between here and the North Pole there's little more than a few barbed-wire fences. But inside the offices of frybread mix manufacturer WoodenKnife Co., owner Ansel WoodenKnife is basking in the glow of warm memories.

The story started in 1979, when WoodenKnife, Lakota, and his wife, Teresa, opened a cafe in the little town of Interior, just 60 miles from where he'd grown up on the Rosebud Reservation. Nowadays, they count among their customers some of the nation's biggest corporations. Safeway, Stop & Shop Supermarkets, Nobel/Sysco Food Services and Wal-Mart purchase WoodenKnife Co.'s frybread mix and/or frozen dough and sell it in almost every state in the nation. In recent years, restaurants, museum stores and gift shops have joined the client list.