Frybread trucks rise up in western NC

Nikki Crisp, a former competitive Native dancer and grandmother of seven, brings so much levity to a room that her personality could serve as a marketing campaign for her signature dish.

For the last 12 years, Crisp has sold her frybread at community events in and around the Qualla Boundary, the peanut-shaped tract of western North Carolina purchased 150 years ago by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. It’s not her first foray into the frybread business: Crisp, a tribal member, grew up in the 1970s making change and handing over orders at her grandmother’s fairgrounds frybread stand.