For decades, the undisputed sensory anchor of the Honor the Earth Pow Wow in Hayward, Wisconsin, was the unmistakable aroma floating from a modest, tarp-covered wigwam. It was a rich, comforting tapestry of woodsmoke, seasoned ground beef, and golden, bubbling dough crisping to perfection in hot oil.

That aroma belonged entirely to Rose Shumate.

Long before food trucks were a multi-billion-dollar modern industry, Rose operated a masterclass in community-driven foodservice. Year after year, from the earliest memories of her children, she established a culinary standard that set the benchmark across regional gatherings. Her operation was a family affair in the truest sense; her children and extended relatives rallied around her to haul heavy water jugs, count change under the summer sun, prep ingredients, and even chop the saplings to construct the physical wigwam framework.

Rose was an undisputed master of her craft, a five-time champion of the prestigious Best Frybread Contest and a frequent place-winner in the competitive Wild Rice Dish category. Rose built her legacy on traditional waagaagin (fiddlehead fern) soup, hearty chicken wild rice soup, and her frybread.

When it came to frybread, her hands moved with an effortless grace born of repetition, intuition, and deep cultural pride. Yet, while her frybread became the stuff of regional legend, celebrated for its pillowy, plump, and incredibly fluffy texture, her son, Matthew Shumate, initially found himself entirely out of rhythm with the family trade.

"I was too impatient," Matthew admits with a reflective smile.

For years, his mother attempted to pass down the subtle, unwritten tricks of the trade, but the dough would routinely rebel beneath Matthew's touch. Frybread is notoriously finicky; it requires a delicate understanding of ambient temperature, humidity, resting time, and tactile feel. While Rose’s bread puffed beautifully upon hitting the oil, Matthew’s early attempts emerged flat, dense, and punishingly hard.

Whenever he grew frustrated over a ruined batch, Rose would offer a simple, profound piece of advice that went far beyond mere measurements or culinary technique: “You have to mix love and happy thoughts into the dry ingredients.”

At the time, to a young man learning the fast-paced environment of a kitchen, the advice might have sounded sentimental. But in 2021, the weight of those words shifted irrevocably. Rose went on her final journey, passing away and leaving a massive, painful void not only in the hearts of her family but across the entire pow wow community.

Grieving the loss of their matriarch, Matthew and his siblings made a brave choice. The very year of her passing, they packed up what they could and hit the road to honor her memory at the Honor the Earth gathering and The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Annual Maawanji'iding Pow Wow. They couldn't let Rose’s presence vanish from the grounds she had blessed for two decades.

Yet, the frybread itself remained an agonizing hurdle. Without Rose there to gauge the dough, Matthew found himself staring down the same flat, stubborn results. He realized that technical execution alone wasn't enough to resurrect his mother's legacy. He had to change his internal disposition.

"Today, I don't just feel like I'm making bread," Matthew says. "When I stand over the flour and begin the process, I feel a familiar warmth. I honestly feel my mother's spirit take over when I'm mixing the dry ingredients."

The youthful impatience that once doomed his dough has completely evaporated, replaced by the exact love, presence, and happy thoughts his mother always insisted upon. The transformation was profound. Almost overnight, the dough began to behave, puffing into golden, light, perfectly aerated pieces that rivaled the award-winning batches of Rose's heyday. Word traveled fast across the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation and beyond: Rose’s boy had found the touch.

Born and raised in Lac Courte Oreilles and a 2011 graduate of the Hayward Community School District, Matthew hadn't always envisioned a life behind a commercial griddle. His early dreams were tied to music, a passion for rhythm and expression that he pursued into his late teens. However, around the age of 23, the calling of the kitchen caught up with him, heavily sparked by the lifetime of culinary inspiration his mother had quietly modeled.

To turn that inspiration into a viable career, Matthew spent a decade grinding in local Northwoods kitchens. He didn’t just cook; he studied the business from the roots up. He mastered high-volume food preparation, spent countless hours perfecting the low-and-slow artistry of smoking meats, managed front-of-house guest relations, and absorbed the complex, often invisible intricacies of inventory control, food safety, and overhead management.

By 2025, Matthew possessed a potent combination: the spiritual inheritance of his mother's legendary recipes and a decade of rigorous, professional back-of-house operational experience. Alongside his partner, Dayzha Sharlow—who brought her own extensive frontline food service experience as a seasoned server while balancing a career path in childcare—Matthew decided it was time to step out of the employment of others and build an independent empire.

Together, they founded Niigaani Frybread and Lemonade.

While the heart of Niigaani is rooted in ancestral tribute, its execution is a masterclass in modern mobile restaurant strategy. In the highly competitive mobile food industry, sentimental value won't keep the lights on; success demands operational efficiency, rock-solid logistics, raw grit, and clear market differentiation.

Matthew and Dayzha designed their business model from day one to withstand the grueling, high-capacity, and infrastructure-poor realities of the traveling pow wow circuit. They started lean, operating out of a heavy-duty 10x20 car port canopy, black stone griddle, propane deep fryer, coolers,  fridge and freezer. A friend made a portable breaker box to withstand the power needed to run the food stand and power the appliances. But they quickly engineered the setup into a high-output mobile kitchen.

The current mobile line is anchored by a high-performance electric deep fryer—essential for maintaining the steady oil temperatures required to flash-fry perfect frybread without soaking the dough in grease—and a heavy-duty Blackstone griddle for searing meats and warming toppings.

However, mobile food vendors frequently run into a massive bottleneck: reliable power. Between commercial refrigerators, freezers, and beverage equipment, a modern food stand draws an immense amount of electricity, often overloading standard generator setups or the limited power grids available at rural event grounds. To solve this operational vulnerability, Matthew utilized his local network. A close friend custom-built a heavy-duty, portable breaker box engineered specifically to handle and regulate the high amperage required to run their refrigeration units and appliances simultaneously on-site. This custom infrastructure safeguards their cold chain inventory and eliminates catastrophic power failures during peak rush hours.

With a stable logistical backbone in place, Matthew turned his attention to the menu, showcasing a brilliant understanding of how to balance cultural authenticity with high-margin, modern food trends.

Niigaani’s menu honors classic indigenous comfort foods that local elders and traditionalists expect, such as classic Indian Tacos loaded with seasoned beef, beans, and fresh toppings. But the true genius—and financial sustainability—of the business lies in Matthew’s contemporary culinary twists, engineered to appeal to younger crowds and diverse demographics:

A playful, culturally blended take on a Mexican street taco. Instead of using a traditional corn or flour tortilla, Niigaani utilizes a perfectly sized, lighter portion of their signature frybread as the vessel. It is topped with deeply seasoned ground beef, fresh cilantro, finely diced onions, a sharp lime wedge, and a vibrant, house-made salsa verde. The item provides a punchy, fresh, and modern flavor profile that contrasts beautifully with the rich base of the fried dough.

Understanding that a high-grossing food operation needs a flagship dessert, Matthew engineered a gourmet sweet option. Fresh, golden frybread is topped with hand-diced sweet strawberries, a cloud of whipped cream, and a proprietary, patented strawberry crumble topping that adds a craveable texture. This item has become an instant social media draw and a massive high-margin revenue driver.

Niigaani completely rejects the industry-standard practice of using powdered mixes or commercial syrups. Instead, their beverage anchor relies on a rigorous, hand-crafted "muddle method." Fresh lemons are sliced and muddled directly in the cup with sugar and ice, closely mimicking the careful, artisanal construction of a classic Wisconsin ice-chilled Old Fashioned. This premium approach turns a low-cost item into a high-value signature drink, keeping lines long even during the hottest summer afternoons.

The proof of concept is undeniable, mapped out across an rapidly expanding regional footprint. What began as a local experiment has successfully scaled into a highly anticipated multi-state operation. Niigaani has systematically proven its operational capability across a diverse array of venues, including:

The summer of 2026 has seen Matthew and Dayzha push their aggressive scaling strategy to new heights. Coming off a wildly successful, high-traffic temporary setup at the Sevenwinds Casino for the Fourth of July Fireworks celebration, the brand has demonstrated its ability to pivot seamlessly from traditional cultural gatherings to massive, secular commercial events.

Now, the calendar brings them full circle. On July 17-19, 2026, Niigaani will pull its custom canopy and mobile kitchen onto the historic grounds of the Honor the Earth Pow Wow.

For Matthew, this particular date is much more than a high-revenue weekend on the fiscal calendar. It is a triumphant homecoming. When he lights the propane burners and opens the dry ingredients, he will be standing on the exact earth where his mother, Rose, built her legacy under a tarp-covered wigwam two decades ago.

Niigaani Frybread and Lemonade is proving a vital lesson for the modern culinary landscape: with a rock-solid operational backbone, smart menu diversification, and absolute dedication to quality, a heritage brand can fiercely thrive in a competitive market. But more importantly, as Matthew lifts a perfectly plump, golden piece of frybread from the oil this July, he proves that a promise made to a mother's spirit is the most powerful ingredient of all.

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