Eastern Cherokee Indian
The Eastern Cherokee Indian Reservation, formally known as the Qualla Boundary, is settled in western North Carolina, south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The principal section of the reservation rests in eastern Swain County and northern Jackson County, but there are numerous smaller non-contiguous divisions to the southwest in Cherokee County (Cheoah community) and Graham County (Snowbird community). A very small division of the primary reservation yet expands eastward into Haywood County. The sum acreage of these parts is 213.934 km² (82.600 sq mi), with a 2000 census resident population of 8,092 persons.
The Cherokee society was that of a matriarchate. The children adopted the clan of their mother, and family relationship was deciphered by her side of the family. The homes were constructed by the family and community members. To the Cherokee, what affected one member of their tribe affected the entire tribe. Women had an equal vote in the matters of the tribe and marriage was only granted between the members of different clans. To the Cherokee Indian, the Smokies had forever represented home, a portion of their collective tribal identity.
The Trail of Tears endures as a sharp reminder of nation torn of their land, as the Eastern Cherokee was constrained to relocate to Oklahoma. This march not only got rid of these citizenry from their individual homes but also divided them from their heritage. A few members of this band decided to disobey the government’s removal order and stayed on in their sacred mountains of Western North Carolina. Nowadays, despite the commercialization of Cherokee, North Carolina, these people persist as a testimonial to community. Virtually inside sight of the tourist district, these Eastern Cherokee have renewed their sense of community and commitment to place.
The Eastern Band members are chiefly derived from Cherokee who didn’t take part in the march on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma Territory, mainly owed to the foresight of Chief Yonaguska, and the assistance of his adopted Caucasian son, William Holland Thomas. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians continue to rehearse several of the original ceremonies, and numerous prominent Cherokee historiographers are associated with or themselves members of the Eastern Band.
Not all of the Eastern Cherokees were moved out on the Trail of Tears. William Holland Thomas, a white store proprietor and state legislator from Jackson County, North Carolina, aided over 600 Cherokee from Qualla Town (the site of modern-day Cherokee, North Carolina) get North Carolina citizenship. As citizens, they are free from forced removal to the west. Additionally, over 400 other Cherokee either hid out from Federal troops in the outback Snowbird Mountains of adjacent Graham County, North Carolina, under the leadership of Tsali. Additionally, another four hundred (400) more or less Cherokee remained reserves in Southeast Tennessee, North Georgia, and Northeast Alabama, as citizens of their respective states, largely mixed-bloods and Cherokee women married to white men. Unitedly, these groupings comprise the foundation for what is at present known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
The overall number of Eastern Cherokees in 1890 is given as 2,885. Of this number 1,520 live in North Carolina, and are called the Eastern Band of Cherokees of North Carolina; 936 are said to live in Georgia, 318 in Tennessee, and 111 in Alabama. In 1884 the number in North Carolina was given as 1,881. Since 1884 some of this band have entered adjoining states and others have linked up with the Cherokees in Indian Territory.
The report on the shape of the Eastern Band of Cherokees of southwestern North Carolina in 1890, with incidental cite of the Eastern Cherokees, demonstrates that this band of Indians, with very little if any care or attention on the part of the national government, has become self-sufficient and self-directed, and that the members thereof have grew into honorable citizens of the United States and the state of North Carolina. Although nominally a tribe or band, so incorporated for certain intents, with a chief and a council, these Indians are as a matter of fact as truly citizens of North Carolina as are whatsoever people inside the boundary line* of the state. They’ve never been looked at as reservation Indians, and hence the Indian policy of the United States hasn’t been applied to them. There’s a United States Indian agent among them, who’s a member of the band, as several of his predecessors have been.
By the late 19th century, the Eastern Band of Cherokees were working under the restraints of a segregated society. In the wake of Reconstruction, conservative white Democrats recovered power in North Carolina and other southern states. They continued to in effect disfranchise all blacks and numerous poor whites by new constitutions and laws related to voter enrollment and elections. They passed Jim Crow laws that split society into “white” and “colored”, mostly to control freedmen, but the Native Americans were included on the colored side and endured the same racial segregation and disfranchisement as early slaves. Blacks and Native Americans wouldn’t recover their rights as US citizens until the Civil Rights Movement and passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are a federally acknowledged Native American tribe in the United States of America. The history of the Eastern Band is synonymous with that of the Qualla Boundary, though the EBCI own, hold, or maintain other lands in the vicinity, and as far-off as 100 miles from the Qualla Boundary. The Eastern Cherokee are the descendants principally of those persons named on the Baker Rolls of Cherokee Indians. The Qualla Boundary, the current motherland of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, receives just about all of its money from a combination of Federal/State funds, tourism, and the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, instituted in the early 1990s.
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History | Medicine Man | 09 June 2009 |
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By Mary Young, September 22, 2009 @ 5:55 am
My paternal grandparents were married around1880 in Alabama, she being 1/2 Cherokee. Not much is known other than her Indian named translated as Minnie. Their last named was Sanders. I have found information on my grandfather, buthave been unable to find out anything on my grandmother. Do you know where I can go to find out more details that would lead me to her ancestory of Cherokee. I realize that I am considered 1/8 th Cheokee and want to know more aboutmy links to the Eastern Cherokee Tribes. Any information you can give me would be greatfully apreciated.
Thank You in advance.
Mary Young
By Tammy Winters., October 11, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
I need help finding my indian tribe. Please get ahold of me 317-919-4901. Thanks Tammy Winters.
By TWISTED branches, October 22, 2009 @ 2:55 pm
My great-grandmother was always said to be a Cherokee. Her name was Dradie Ann Marandy LaSnowbird Rooker. I don’t know if the name “Rooker” was added on in order to be “accepted” or what. But, I can’t find family names on the Dawes Roll or the Baker Roll. I am certain she was a part of the Snowbird Cherokees.
If anyone comes acreoss this message and has suggestions that will assist me or has knowledge of her or my family I would appreciate assistance.
By Angie Lewis Nash, November 25, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
I am looking for any information I can find on John Lewis Clark (wife was Della), his father was John C. Clark (wife was Margret or something close) her last name is sketchy something like Done Forner Clark? the only information I have is that John C. Clark lived in the Tennessee/Kentucky area and that his wife was full Cherokee and he was part cherokee I believe. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
By gennaro, February 3, 2010 @ 9:07 am
great noble people. for all the natives of the whole American continent. must increase population density, be a solution. red leather is beautiful. red leather
great people, many bodies one mind to win! together we can! red power forever !!!
we must save religion race culture of the natives. the world needs your noble race, all the tribes from east to west from south to north of continent pollution must be united against the West.
red power. my heart my thoughts are with you. against extinction
By Carolyn Martinez, February 4, 2010 @ 8:46 pm
I need help finding my Grandfathers Tribe. My Grandfathers last name was Lane,Lived in Jesup Georgia..from the time He was born around 1890..His parents were both Cherokee..Also His cousin were the Reddish family..also Cherokee.If anyone knows of the Lane family from Georgia please let me know.
Thanks,Carolyn Martinez
cmartinezhomes@aol.com or call me @ 949-315-9177