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SPRINGVILLE — It became apparent most of the fifth graders in Alice Owen’s Meadow Brook Elementary class had never tasted fry bread before as not-so-quiet whispers of appreciation buzzed through the class as the kids took their first bites.

When Diné (Navajo) educator Brenda Beyal asked what the students thought of the fry bread, those whispers turned to excited shouts of, “It’s so good” and, “They should serve this for lunch.”

“It tasted like heaven,” 10-year-old Jamison King said. “I learned that Navajos can make fry bread in different ways, like they make hamburgers with them, they make normal fry bread.”

The treat was part of a visiting lesson organized by BYU Arts Partnership’s Native American Curriculum Initiative, which brings Native American arts and culture to Utah classrooms.

“We’re gonna lose access to these beautiful art forms if we don’t find a way to improve the conversations and increase understanding about the sensitivities around this content,” BYU Arts Partnership Program Director Cally Flox said. “It’s an essential issue in the arts that we find respectful, culturally appropriate ways to share works from Indigenous people.”

Beyal, the initiative’s program coordinator, said it was born out of teachers asking questions about things like cultural appropriation and a need for authentic resources to teach Utah students about the state’s eight sovereign nations: the Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray reservation, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians, Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and San Juan Southern Paiute.

“Native Americans are not a homogeneous people. The eight sovereign nations of Utah have their own distinct ways of doing things, their own history,” Beyal said. “Our mission is to amplify Native voices.”