While at the mission be sure to sample some authentic Indian fry bread. Tohono O’odham tribal women prepare the fry bread in open kitchens in rows of ocotillo ramadas located just outside the mission.

Photos by Sharon Bahr

Fry bread is a delicious treat that can be best described as a hot, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth flatbread fried in hot oil.

It is most often topped with a choice of red chili and beans or powdered sugar, cinnamon and honey and can serve as a meal or a dessert.

Andrea Encinas, 39, is a Tohono O’odham native and has been making fry bread since she was a child, when her mother taught her.

Fry bread was first made by the Navajo tribe, but has become a staple of other Southwestern tribes.

Nick Accodino, 91, accompanied by his wife, Sabrina and his mother-in-law, Senovia De Leon, is a frequent visitor to the mission. “I come here just to eat the fry bread and for the atmosphere,” he said.


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