Qualla Boundary | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
State | North Carolina |
Counties | Cherokee, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Swain |
Established | 1876 [1] |
Added to Trust | 1924 [2] |
Named for | Old woman |
Government | Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians |
Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
Area code | 828 |
GNIS feature ID | 1018039 [3] |
The Qualla Boundary or The Qualla is territory held as a land trust by the United States government for the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), who reside in Western North Carolina. The area is part of the large historic Cherokee territory in the Southeast, which extended into eastern Tennessee, western South Carolina, northern Georgia, and Alabama. Currently, the largest contiguous portion of the Qualla lies in Haywood, Swain, and Jackson counties and is centered on the community of Cherokee, which serves as the tribal capital of the EBCI. Smaller, non-contiguous parcels also lie in Graham and Cherokee counties, near the communities of Snowbird and Murphy, respectively.
The tribe purchased this land in the 1870s, and it was subsequently placed under federal protective trust; it is not a reservation created by the government. [4] [1] Individuals can buy, own, and sell the land, provided they are enrolled members of EBCI tribe.
Qualla comes from the Cherokee word kwalli ('old woman'). It refers to Polly, an elder Cherokee woman who lived in the area. [1] [5] [6]
The Qualla Boundary is located at 35°30′N83°16′W / 35.500°N 83.267°W . The main part of the Qualla Boundary lies in eastern Swain and northern Jackson counties (just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park). A small portion of the main trust lands extends eastward into Haywood County. The trust lands include many smaller non-contiguous sections to the southwest in Marble, Hiwassee, and Hanging Dog areas of Cherokee County, and the Snowbird community in Graham County. The total land area of these regions is 213.934 km2 (82.6 sq mi), with a 2000 census resident population of 8,092 people.
The Cherokee and their ancestors have long occupied the area, having migrated there centuries before Europeans arrived. During their colonial expansion west, European settlers sometimes came into conflict with the Cherokee, whose territory extended into present-day Tennessee and northern Georgia. After the late 18th century and warfare with American settlers during and after the Revolutionary War, many of the Cherokee moved farther south along the Tennessee River, into Georgia and westward into Alabama, establishing at least eleven new towns [ citation needed ].
The Cherokee were forcibly removed in the late 1830s from much of this area, especially the Black Belt in Georgia and Alabama, under federal authority as authorized by Congress in the 1830 Indian Removal Act. They were relocated to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River, in what is the present-day state of Oklahoma.
During the winter of 1838 and early the spring of 1839, the U.S. Federal Government relocated approximately 11,000 Cherokee from their homeland in North Carolina, in what is known as the Trail of Tears. Some of the Cherokee were able to evade the initial removal and hide in the Great Smoky Mountains, some were free to stay on their lands because of earlier treaties, but the majority of the Cherokee people were removed from the land. This was when the main struggle for land at what became the Qualla Boundary began. [7]
The Qualla Boundary was first surveyed in 1876 by M. S. Temple under the auspices of the United States Land Office. These pieces were embodied in a map published as the Map of the Qualla Indian reserve. [8] The Qualla Boundary is a land trust supervised by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. The land is a fragment of the extensive historical homeland of the Cherokee in the region and was considered part of the Cherokee Nation during the 19th century, prior to certain treaties and Indian Removal in the 1830s. William Holland Thomas had lived and worked among the Cherokee people for a good portion of his life. He had a knowledge of their traditions and language and was close friends with some members of the tribe. The Cherokee valued and respected Thomas; he had studied law and was adopted into the tribe and named as successor by its hereditary chief. He is the only European American to have served as chief in their history. [9]
Thomas purchased lands around the Oconaluftee River for the tribe, the total area adding up to around 50,000 acres; the purchased lands are a large part of what makes up the Boundary today. The Cherokee organized and formed a corporation in 1870 to be able to purchase and hold additional lands. [4] The Cherokee who gained the ability to live in North Carolina were considered to be an independent band from the Cherokee Nation living in Oklahoma. [10]
In the 1930s, the federal government requested the tribe to cede land for the construction of a new motorway, called the Blue Ridge Parkway, that would cut through the Qualla Boundary to end at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. [11] The tribe resisted the federal government, which initially wanted the land for free. In 1939, the tribe and the federal government reached an agreement and signed a pact for right-of-way acquisition; in return the federal government would make a $40,000 payment for the tribe's land, require the state to build a regular highway through the Soco Valley (US 19), and transfer two other parcels to the tribe, known as the Boundary Tree tract (north of US 441, near the national park entrance) and Ravensford tract (east of the Oconaluftee River and Raven Fork confluence). [11] [12] [13] Two years later, the U.S. Congress decided not to give the tribe the Ravensford tract as stated in the pact. In 2003, the tribe negotiated a land swap with the federal government; this involved the tribe buying 218 acres (88 ha) near Waterrock Knob then trading it for the Ravensford tract. In 2009, Cherokee Central Schools opened a $140 million school campus on the Ravensford tract. [13]
The tribal community functions like most municipalities, operating schools, law enforcement, and rescue services, in addition to their own hospital and gaming casino, known as Harrah's Cherokee. They have opened a second location of the casino on their land in Murphy, North Carolina. The tribe has operated a court system since 1987.
Tribal police have exclusive police jurisdiction on Indian lands. The FBI and other federal agencies have jurisdiction to handle certain major federal criminal offenses. N.C. State Highway Patrol, motor vehicle inspectors, wildlife officers, state alcohol agents, SBI agents, and other state peace officers assigned to counties that overlap with the Qualla Boundary can be called to assist tribal law enforcement officers, and can be commissioned as "special officers" of the Department of the Interior to assist in federal investigations. Non-tribal members charged with a crime in Qualla Boundary are referred to county courts.
The Qualla Boundary is divided into seven communities, which are similar to townships. [14]
Community | Overlapping North Carolina counties |
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Big Cove [15] | Swain County |
Birdtown [16] | Jackson County, Swain County |
Cherokee County [17] | Cherokee County |
Painttown [18] | Jackson County |
Snowbird [19] | Graham County |
Wolftown [20] | Haywood County, Jackson County, Swain County |
Yellowhill [21] | Swain County |
There are no municipalities, instead each community elects two representatives to the tribal council; except for Cherokee County and Snowbird, which share two representatives to the tribal council. [22] Cherokee, a census-designated place, overlaps most of Painttown and Yellowhill, with a small portion also in Wolftown. [14]
From 1890 to 1954, the U.S. Indian Service (later renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs) operated the Cherokee Boarding Schools in Cherokee. It replaced these with elementary day schools, located closer to students' homes in Big Cove, Soco, Birdtown, and Snowbird. In 1962 all elementary day schools were consolidated into Central Elementary School in Cherokee.
In 1975, Cherokee High School was opened with grades seven through twelve. In 1990 Cherokee Central Schools became a tribally operated school district, under a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with students assigned from Big Cove, Birdtown, Painttown, Wolftown, and Yellowhill communities. [23] [24] [25] In 1996, the school district established the Kituwah curriculum for kindergarten through sixth grade, which incorporates the Cherokee language. [23] Prior to this, the schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs allowed only English to be used. [26] In 2004, the EBCI established the New Kituwah Academy, a private bilingual Cherokee-English language immersion school for Cherokee students in kindergarten through sixth grade, located in the Yellowhill community. [27]
In 1975 Western Carolina University opened its Cherokee Center in cooperation with the EBCI, which is the headquarters for outreach and involvement between residents in the Qualla Boundary and outside surrounding communities. It provides services including application process, transcript request, scholarships, internships placement, high school recruitment, as well as college level courses. [28] The Cherokee Center is supported by an advisory board composed of representatives from the EBCI and Western Carolina University. [29]
In the mid-1950s, much of Disney's five-part television series, Davy Crockett (starring Fess Parker), was filmed here.
Swain County is a county located on the far western border of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,117. Its county seat is Bryson City.
Jackson County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,109. Since 1913, its county seat has been Sylva, which replaced Webster. Cullowhee is the site of Western Carolina University (WCU). In the early 21st century, the university has more than 12,000 students, nearly twice the number of permanent residents of Cullowhee. The university has a strong influence in the region and county. More than 10 percent of the county residents identify as Native American, mostly Cherokee. The federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is based at Qualla Boundary, land that consists of territory in both Jackson and neighboring Swain County. This is the only federally recognized tribe in North Carolina, and one among three federally recognized Cherokee tribes nationally. The other two are based in what is now the state of Oklahoma, a former Indian Territory.
Graham County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,030, making it the third-least populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Robbinsville.
The Cullasaja River is a short river located entirely in Macon County, North Carolina. It is a tributary of the Little Tennessee River into which it flows near the county seat of Franklin.
Cherokee is a census-designated place (CDP) in Swain and Jackson counties in Western North Carolina, United States, within the Qualla Boundary land trust. Cherokee is located in the Oconaluftee River Valley around the intersection of U.S. Routes 19 and 441. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 2,195. It is the capital of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, one of three recognized Cherokee tribes and the only one in North Carolina.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), is a federally recognized Indian tribe based in western North Carolina in the United States. They are descended from the small group of 800–1,000 Cherokees who remained in the Eastern United States after the U.S. military, under the Indian Removal Act, moved the other 15,000 Cherokees to west of the Mississippi River in the late 1830s, to Indian Territory. Those Cherokees remaining in the east were to give up tribal Cherokee citizenship and to assimilate. They became U.S. citizens.
Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort is a casino and hotel on the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, North Carolina. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and operated by Caesars Entertainment. It is located on the site of the former Frontier Land theme park.
Joyce Dugan is an American educator, school administrator, and politician; she served as the 24th Principal Chief of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (1995-1999), based in Western North Carolina. She was the first woman to be elected to this office, and as of 2024 the only one.
William Holland Thomas was an American merchant, lawyer, politician and soldier.
Cherokee Central Schools is a school district in Cherokee, North Carolina, consisting of a single campus holding buildings serving grades K-12 and the administration office. The schools are a K-5 elementary school, a 6-8 middle school, and a 9-12 high school. The Ravensford Campus, the academic campus, occupies much of the historic Ravensford archaeological site. In 1987–88, the elementary school was recognized as a Blue Ribbon School.
Cherokee Preservation Foundation is an independent nonprofit foundation established in 2000 as part of the Tribal-State Compact amendment between the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and the State of North Carolina. The Foundation is funded by the EBCI from gaming revenues generated by the Tribe; it is not associated with any for-profit gaming entity and is a separately functioning organization independent of the Tribal government. It works to improve the quality of life of the EBCI and strengthen the western North Carolina region by balancing Cherokee ways with the pursuit of new opportunities.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians educational policies have shaped the scholastic opportunities afforded to its members. The decision of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to take control of the schools located on the Qualla Boundary under the Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1987 started a wave of tribal responsibility in education. EBCI Tribal Council began producing programs that aided its members in most all aspects of the educational process. The evolution of these programs, their financing, and their relationship with tribal members and non-members alike are in a constant state of flux dependent upon policies produced by the EBCI tribal council. The EBCI tribal council does not directory set educational policy, although some if its members do set on boards that govern the educational facilities, and in most cases the director of the educational programs do report to the tribal council throughout the year. The policies of the EBCI educational programs can be analyzed through their respective goals, objectives, and procedures.
Ravensford is an unincorporated community in Swain County, Western North Carolina. This is within the traditional homeland of the Cherokee people. In a survey and excavation project in the early 21st century, part of the community was found to have archeological resources that were thousands of years old, in addition to more recent historic materials related to the Cherokee people. In 1938, the US Government and state of North Carolina negotiated with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to gain their agreement to transfer some of their land to enable construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway. In return, lands in Ravensford were transferred to their Qualla Boundary property.
Patrick Henry Lambert is a Cherokee politician who served as the 27th Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians from 2015 to 2017. He also served as the Executive Director of the Cherokee Tribal Gaming Commission for over twenty years. Lambert was impeached on January 18, 2017, and removed from office on May 25, 2017.
Richard G. Sneed is a Cherokee politician who served as the 28th Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Sneed succeeded former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert following Lambert's impeachment, only the second such impeachment since the 19th century.
The New Kituwah Academy, also known as the Atse Kituwah Academy, is a private bilingual Cherokee- and English-language immersion school for Cherokee students in kindergarten through sixth grade, located in Cherokee, North Carolina, in the Yellow Hill community of the Qualla Boundary. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), and operated by the Kituwah Preservation and Education Program (KPEP).
The Oconaluftee River drains the south-central Oconaluftee valley of the Great Smoky Mountains in Western North Carolina before emptying into the Tuckasegee River. The river flows through the Qualla Boundary, a federal land trust that serves as a reserve for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, the only federally recognized tribe in North Carolina. They bought the land back from the federal government in the 1870s, after having been pushed off and forced to cede it earlier in the 19th century. Several historic Cherokee towns are known to have been located along this river.
The Ravensford Site is an old archaeological site located in the state of North Carolina, specifically within modern-day Swain County of the Appalachian Summit Region. Slightly north of the town of Cherokee, it sits at the edge of Oconaluftee River along the Raven Fork tributary on the Qualla Boundary. Its current elevation is 2,012 feet.
Referendum Question #2, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Marijuana Legalization Measure, was a ballot measure in the US that was sent to voters on September 7, 2023, by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council. The proposal sought to legalize the recreational use of cannabis on tribal lands for those over the age of 21, and to require the EBCI Tribal Council to adopt legislation to regulate legal cannabis.
Ernestine Sharon Walkingstick was an Eastern Band Cherokee nurse and community leader, who established the first clinic for the Native American population in the town of Robbinsville, North Carolina, and was instrumental in founding the region's first domestic violence shelter.
Map of the Qualla Indian Reserve (Boundary) N.C.