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.
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 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, 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 Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Smaller, discontiguous parcels also lie in Graham and Cherokee counties, near the communities of Snowbird and Murphy respectively.
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 800–1000 Cherokee who remained in the Eastern United States after the US military, under the Indian Removal Act, moved the other 15,000 Cherokee to west of the Mississippi River in the late 1830s, to Indian Territory. Those Cherokee remaining in the East were to give up tribal Cherokee citizenship and to assimilate. They became US 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.
The Cherokee Nation, also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokee who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen, Absentee Shawnee, and Natchez Nation. As of 2023, over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
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 2022 the only one.
Nikwasi comes from the Cherokee word for "star", Noquisi (No-kwee-shee), and is the site of the Cherokee town which is first found in colonial records in the early 18th century, but is much older. The town covered about 100 acres (40 ha) on the floodplain of the Little Tennessee River. Franklin, North Carolina, was later developed by European Americans around this site.
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.
Clifford Gerard Parker, known as Gerard Parker was the 23rd Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for 16 days in 1995. Prior to this, he had served as Vice Chief for six years under Jonathan L. Taylor, who was impeached after two terms. He continued to serve as Vice Chief under Joyce Dugan, who was elected in 1995.
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.
Harrah's Cherokee Valley River is a casino and hotel on the Qualla Boundary in Murphy, North Carolina. It is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and operated by Caesars Entertainment.
Cannabis in North Carolina is illegal for any use except for very limited medical usage, though decriminalized for possession of 0.5 ounces or less for individuals with three or fewer misdemeanor convictions.
Patrick Henry Lambert is a Native American tribal leader 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.
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).
Myrtle Driver Johnson is a native speaker of the Cherokee language. As of July 2019 she was one of 211 remaining Cherokee speakers in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).
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 (EBCI), the only federally recognized tribe in the state of 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 nineteenth century. Several historic Cherokee towns are known to have been located along this river.
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.
United States