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Cherokee Trail

Cherokee Lands

NC Division of Tourism, Film & Sports Development Photo by Ron Ruehl

The town of Cherokee, North Carolina, located within the Qualla Boundary in the far western part of the state, is the cultural center of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Here, in this nation-within-a-nation on a remnant of their once vast homeland, about 8,000 members of the tribe live, work and raise their families. It is here their culture is being preserved and handed down to future generations.

Though it is commonly referred to as the Cherokee Indian Reservation, the 57,000-acre Qualla Boundary is technically not a reservation because individual tribal members hold title to about eighty percent of the land. Because the land is held in a federal trust, it cannot be sold except to other tribal members.

Other Cherokee lands in North Carolina include the 2,250-acre parcel in Graham County, home to the Snowbird community, and 5,575 acres scattered throughout Cherokee County, near the old Cherokee communities of Marble, Grape Creek and Hanging Dog.