Part 3: The Red Stick Crusade

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of our 3-part Historical Overview of the Southeastern Creek Tribes and Creek Nation.

In the fall of 1811 the Upper Creeks held their annual meeting Tuckabatchee near Montgomery, Alabama area. Anger and resentment against the Americans was at a peak among the 5,000 Creeks present. The Great Shawnee war Chief Tecumseh traveled from his homeland above the Ohio River in the hope of enlisting the southeastern tribes in a great pan-Indian confederacy. The Shawnee gained a following among a group of young Creek medicine men. They claimed to possess a special understanding of the good and evil spirits occupying the traditional Creek three-tiered universe of the earth, sky, and underworld. They were called “prophets” by the whites and were strong advocates for a return to traditional Creek ways. When Tecumseh departed for the North, some of the prophets accompanied him and spent the winter absorbing his doctrine. On their way home in the spring of 1812, they encountered a group of white settlers in western Tennessee and murdered them. These killings and others in the Ohio country and within Creek lands to the south triggered a chain of events that led to war, and, ultimately devastation for the Creek.

First, under orders from the U.S. government, Hawkins demanded the arrest of the warriors responsible for the settlers’ death. Creek leaders were permitted to send in their own lawmen to bring in the culprits, but, instead of taking the culprits into custody, the Creek officers   executed them. Militant factions within the Tribe swore vengeance and set out to eliminate from the confederacy every last shred of white civilization. By the end of 1813 one observer noted, “The whole of towns has taken up the war club.” Since these war clubs were painted red, those who wielded them became known as the Red Sticks.

The Red Stick crusade spread rapidly. By July the Red Sticks had slain nine Creeks who backed accommodation with white Americans, burned several villages, and destroyed livestock, fences, plows, and most everything non-traditional they came across. Most of the opposition came from the Lower Creek towns, led by William McIntosh of Coweta. 

In the summer of 1813, a band of Red Sticks traveled to Pensacola where they purchased gunpowder from the Spaniards. On their way home, they were attacked by a combined force of whites and Creeks. Some Red Sticks died in the skirmish and they vowed to retaliate in kind. They attacked Fort Mims, a well-protected plantation in southern Alabama where the warriors who had attacked them had taken refuge. About 750 warriors led by Red Eagle, also known as William Weatherford, slaughtered some 250 men, women and children.

The Fort Mims massacre was the incentive the Americans needed to launch an all-out campaign against the Creek Indians. General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee was at the head of the largest force – which included a band of Creeks under McIntosh and Big Warrior as well as 600 Cherokees. Twice Jackson had led his troops into the heart of Creek territory and twice his advance was checked, first by problems with his troops, next by fierce Creek resistance. Then, in March 1814, Jackson encountered the Creeks at a neck of land on the Tallapoosa River known a Horseshoe Bend. Some 1,000 Red Sticks had barricaded themselves there but Jackson’s force was well armed and perhaps two to three times greater in number. While Jackson’s hidden allies swam the river to steal the canoes and block any escape, Jackson launched a frontal assault. The fighting lasted all day. When it ended, approximately 800 Red Sticks lay dead. Many of Jackson’s men stripped the skin from the bodies as gruesome souvenirs of the battle. Most of the 800 Red Stick bodies were thrown or dragged into the river. Weatherford, who had miraculously escaped a few months earlier by jumping his horse off a bluff into a river, was not among the dead. He had purportedly been off inspecting other fortifications on the day of the attack.

The wars shattered the Creek nation claiming over 3,000 lives – nearly 15 percent of the total Creek population. Jackson’s campaign had swept most of Upper Creek country clean and driven as many as 2,500 Creeks into Florida where many had sought refuge among the Seminoles.  Others escaped to establish new homes in the Florida Panhandle area. Jackson continued his advance down the Tallopoosa River and built Fort Jackson on the ruins of the old French redoubt, Fort Toulouse. In April 1814, the Creek leaders assembled there to have a treaty dictated to them. They were shocked by the terms, spelled out by Jackson himself. The Creek Confederacy would be forced to give to the U.S. government more than 23 million acres, representing half their domain. In an ironic note, it was the pro-government William McIntosh and his lieutenants who had to do the signing. Most of the Red Stick leaders were either dead or in Florida, waiting for the next round of fighting.

Sources:  Tribes of the Southern Woodlands, Time-Life books; Creek Country, The Creek Indians and their World by Robbie Ethridge; Native Americans of the Southeast by Christina M. Girod; The Southeastern Indians by Charles Hudson; and numerous web sites including Wikipedia.

Part 2: Expansion and Removal of the Creeks Begins

Read Part 1 and Part 3 of our 3-part Historical Overview of the Southeastern Creek Tribes and Creek Nation. 

The political state of the new Union

The American Revolutionary War began when the North American Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain as “The independent Unified States of America” in 1775 and lasted until 1783. In 1778 France was eager for revenge following its defeat in the Seven Year War and signed an alliance with the new American nation. The conflict then escalated to a European-American war with Great Britain combating France, Spain and the Netherlands in a global conflict.

In 1783, the Treaty of Paris ended the Revolutionary War and recognized the sovereignty of the United States over the territory bounded roughly by what is now Canada to the north, Florida to the south, and the Mississippi River to the west. France gained its revenge, retained its North American land west of the Mississippi, while Spain acquired Britain’s Florida Colonies.  In 1789 the new nation became the United States of America.

The goal of the United States government of expansion began. In the 1790s the United States began to formulate plans for keeping the British out of the United States and removing the French and Spanish from ownership or control of land in North America. It was also the time when plans would begin for the elimination, extermination or removal of Indians from the eastern United States.

Nearly all native groups had allied with the British and served as Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. But when the British negotiators agreed upon the terms of the 1783 peace treaty, Great Britain offered no protection to their former Indian allies. In addition, most whites in the new American republic saw no reason to treat the Native Americans well after the war.  White settlers claimed ownership of all Indian lands west of the Appalachians by rights of the 1783 Peace Treaty and the U.S. government did little or nothing to stop them. The Indians quite rightly rejected these claims.   

Removal Begins

In 1798 the U.S. government formed the Mississippi Territory. This land was an organized incorporated territory of the United States which included most of the land in what are the present day states of Mississippi and Alabama. The State of Georgia had maintained a claim over most of the area until it surrendered its claim following the Yazoo land scandal. Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800 and by 1803 he had initiated a plan for removal of the Indians east of the Mississippi to the newly acquired land of the Louisiana Purchase, land west of the Mississippi River. In 1805 the Treaty of Mount Dexter between the U. S. government and the Choctaw tribe, the Choctaw ceded 4,142,700 acres of fertile Mississippi area land in exchange for cancellation of $48,000 trading debt, a scheme set up by Jefferson. The removal of Indians east of the Mississippi had begun.

The greatest challenge was ahead for the U.S. government:  How to remove or eliminate the Creek Indian Nation. The Creek Nation encompassed much of the present States of Georgia and Alabama, lands very attractive to new white settlers.

During the deerskin trade era the southeastern Indians had been a necessary and integral part of the global economy. After the American Revolution the Creeks and all of the southeastern interior area Indian societies found themselves not only unnecessary to the American economy, but, in fact, they became impediments to the system. Ensuing wars, battles and worthless treaties would drive the southeastern Indians from their homelands. The favorable position held by the Creek Tribes at the turn of the century eroded for a number of reasons – decline in the population of white-tailed deer in the southeast, disruption of southeastern Indian trade during the American Revolution and the fact that the southeastern Indians were no longer needed for maintaining claimed frontier borders, and finally the introduction of the cotton gin in 1793 led to a worldwide boom in cotton; cotton farming became a very profitable enterprise and land in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi was coveted for cotton plantations. 

During this time the Creeks were struggling to come to terms with the changing politics. The Creek proved to be the most stubborn when confronted with the prospect of change. The United States sent an agent, Benjamin Hawkins, to live among the Creek and attempt to educate them in the ways of the white people. Hawkins had some success in achieving a unified Creek government. But when he suggested that Creek men take up farming – traditionally a female task – he met resistance.  Some towns, largely among the Lower Creeks in Georgia, complied. Most of the Upper Creeks bitterly resented Hawkins and the U.S. government dictating their lives.   

The Southeastern Indian Tribes, Creek Nation and Creek Tribes - A Historical Overview

In our series on the 10 Native American Tribes of the Southeast, 4 of the 7 remaining federally recognized Indian Tribes are of Creek Indian origin: the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Miccosukee Indian Tribe of Florida, the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, and the Poarch Creek Tribe of Alabama.
(Read Part 2 and Part 3 of our 3-part Historical Overview of the Southeastern Creek Tribes and Creek Nation)

The Creek Confederacy

In the late 18^th Century the territory of the Creek Confederacy was from the Oconee River near present day Macon, Georgia to the Tombigbee River in Alabama near present-day Mobile, Alabama. At this time 73 towns ranging in size from as few as 10 to 20 families to more than 200 families occupied the Creek Confederacy. There were 48 Upper Creek towns and 25 Lower Creek towns with around 20,000 people in total.

By the end of the 18^th Century, Indians still occupied and claimed much of the interior south, and the Creeks in particular owned most of this including  what later became known as the “cotton belt.” With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States now owned what became known as the Mississippi Territory which included most of the Creeks’ western lands, along with the major port cities of New Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola. This area was originally recognized as Indian Lands but the U.S. government hoped and planned to eventually acquire these lands from the Indians and open them to American settlement.

Throughout the 18^th Century southeastern Indians were deeply involved in the deerskin trade, one of the main economic activities in the interior south until the late 18^th Century. Indian men were no longer subsistence hunters, they had become commercial hunters, selling their pelts to European traders in exchange for European manufactured items. Hundreds of thousands of deerskins were shipped out of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Pensacola and New Orleans.

An important historical factor played into the deerskin trade that brought a favorable position to the southeastern Indians, especially the Creeks. At this time the three European rivals, Spain, Great Britain and France had claims on eastern and southeastern North American lands. But none of the three had a sufficient military to maintain and fortify their borders. In reality the three European nations only controlled small toeholds on the coasts; Indian groups lived in and controlled most of the interior lands. Therefore the Europeans spent much of their time and efforts courting Indian alliances through trade agreements.  In this way, the southeastern Indians negotiated their place in the modern, end of the 18^th Century world economic system. What would come next would bring drastic changes. 

Millennials: The Disruptive Generation?

According the Pew Research Center, “The Millennial generation is forging a distinctive path into adulthood. Now ranging in age from 18 to 33, they are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry—and optimistic about the future.”

Casinos seem to know what Baby Boomers like, they’re familiar patrons and have been inhabiting the gaming floor for decades now. They know what Generation X likes, but aren’t too concerned about them because they’ve got families to support and bills to pay. The Millennials, though, have been much discussed but remain an alluring mystery.

The Millennials represent a bigger generation than the baby boomers. The largest wealth transfer ever, from Boomers to Millennials, will take place in the future. Millennials already will account for 1/3 of retail spending in the next 5 years. However, a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority survey found that only 63 percent of millennials born after 1980 gambled while visiting Vegas last year, compared with 87 percent of visitors 70 to 90 years old, 78 percent of baby boomers (ages 51 to 69) and 68 percent of Generation X members (ages 35 to 50). So casinos are now placing tremendous focus on the Millennials – what they want and how to attract them to the gaming floor.

Millennials been called game changers and disruptors – indicating a cataclysmic paradigm shift in gaming tendencies that will force casinos to radically restructure. Is it true? Well, we say yes and no…

When you take a closer look at the numbers, it’s less a disruption and more simply a continuation of trends. In each category – politics, religion, marriage – it’s a continuation of a trend across generations.

What we do see, though, is rapid adaption of new technology that changes habits and expectations. We believe that, rather than a generational disruption, we should view it as more of a technological disruption with Millennials at the forefront. 

So rather than tearing down a gaming floor and starting from scratch, we see the need to introduce new elements to address these changes. And adding elements to meet these needs can be done gradually.

How specifically can we address these needs? We’ll delve into that in our next blog. 

"We ourselves have been scourged, manacled, fettered and otherwise personally abused"

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw was granted federal recognition in 1945 following decades of abuse and fraud by the United States government.

At the turn of the 18^th century, the Choctaw Tribe had over 25,000 members who were prolific farmers and hunters who had inhabited this land for thousands of years. The Choctaw homeland consisted of over 23 million acres of land in the fertile Mississippi basin.

The Choctaw were labeled by European Americans as one of the five “civilized tribes,” or the five Native American nations (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek and Seminole) that Anglo-European settlers considered “civilized" because they adopted attributes of the colonists' culture.

In 1798 the US government formed the Mississippi Territory. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson initiated a plan for removal of Indians east of the Mississippi to the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase land west of the Mississippi River. In his military strategy he issued that the federal government acquire all the lands bordering the east side of the Mississippi river for the purpose of defense. However, many believe that US government had a hunger for the Choctaw land to accommodate their plans for growth through European immigration and that Indian removal was his ultimate goal.

Jefferson’s main strategy was to install government trading posts among the Indians, to allow them to fall into debt, and then to force them to cede their land as a way of ridding themselves of the debt. His strategy succeeded – in 1805 with the Treaty of Mount Dexter, the Choctaws ceded more than 4 million acres of fertile Mississippi area land in exchange for cancellation of $48,000 trading debt.

The attraction of vast amounts of high quality, inexpensive cotton land brought hordes of settlers and from 1798 through 1820, the Mississippi Territory population of white settlers grew from 9,000 to 220,000. This movement of white settlers and the US government strategy to remove the Choctaw and other tribes from the southeast continued through 1830, and the Choctaw ceded more than 23 million acres. In 1829, Andrew Jackson urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act. Once approved, Jackson immediately pushed forward.

In September 1830 U.S. Treaty Commissioners met with a large number of Choctaws near Dancing Rabbit Creek in eastern Mississippi. The Choctaw delegation was led by their new Principal Chief Greenwood Le Flore, a Mississippi plantation owner, son of a French-Canadian trader and Choctaw woman. Le Flore had maneuvered himself into the position as the Choctaw Principal Chief and had advocated a treaty of removal for the Choctaws (although he planned to keep his Mississippi plantation with the blessing of white government authorities). The Choctaw Council agreed to exchange the remaining 10 million acres of Choctaw land in Mississippi for 15 million acres in the new Indian Territory after offers of cash and threats of military intervention. The Choctaw then became the first to be taken from their ancestral homeland via what would be known as the Trail of Tears.

Most of the Choctaw were removed in three-year forced migrations beginning in October 1831, making the long journey from Mississippi through what is now the state of Arkansas and on to Indian Territory. They were herded and taken by steamboat or wagon, but mostly on foot. The federal government was ill-prepared and the treks were devastating. Of the nearly 15,000 Choctaw who were subjected to the treks nearly 2,500 died during the journey or soon thereafter.

Sale of the lands ceded in Mississippi brought the federal government $8 million. Treaty orchestrator Greenwood Le Flore prospered on his Mississippi plantation that eventually grew to 15,000 acres and worked by 400 slaves. Le Flore went on to represent his county in the state legislature.

As many as 6,000 Choctaw declined to leave their homeland and remained in Mississippi under state authority. Article 14 of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek stipulated that they would receive 640 acres upon registering with the Indian agent, William Ward. However, Ward was corrupt and incompetent in his duties and few Choctaws succeeded in registering for grants. The vast majority who stayed behind were left landless and endured living conditions later described as worse than those of most black slaves.

For the next two decades the Mississippi Choctaw were objects of legal conflict, harassment and intimidation. The Choctaw described their situation in 1849: “We have had our habitations torn down and burned, our fences destroyed, cattle turned into our fields and we ourselves have been scourged, manacled, fettered and otherwise personally abused until by such treatment some of our best men have died.” [Walters, William (1979), Three Efforts at Development Among the Choctaws of Mississippi.]

Conditions declined even further for the Choctaw after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Under segregation and Jim Crow laws, all people of color were categorized as “other” or black. Segregation further required them to use segregated facilities, blacks, Indians and others all included. This lasted until the middle of the twentieth century and passage of the Civil Rights laws.

During and following the years of the Great Depression the Roosevelt Administration officials initiated programs to help alleviate some of the poor social and economic conditions in the southern states. The 1933 Special Narrative Report described the dismal state of the welfare of the Mississippi Choctaw whose population had declined to 1,665. The US Commissioner for Indian Affairs (now the Bureau of Indian Affairs) used this significant report in a proposal to re-organize the “Civilized Mississippi Choctaw” as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. This enabled them to establish their own tribal government.

In 1934 President Roosevelt signed the Indian Reorganization Act into law. It proved to be critical for the survival of the Mississippi Choctaw and other tribal peoples. Under this new act the Mississippi Choctaw reorganized, adopted a new constitution and on April 20, 1945 they were recognized by the United States government as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.  This new status of federal recognition gave them independence from the state government, although the state continued its system of racial segregation.

19 years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 produced significant social change for the Choctaw in Mississippi, who built the foundation of business ventures with the view and policy of self-determination. The US Congress passed the landmark Self-Determination Act of 1975 which included means by which federally recognized tribes could negotiate contracts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to manage more of their own education and social service programs. Beginning in 1979 the Mississippi Choctaw Tribal Council worked on a number of economic development initiatives targeting attracting industry to the Choctaw reservation.

In 1987 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that federally recognized tribes could operate gaming facilities on their sovereign land free from state regulation and in 1988 the United States Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act which set terms for Native American tribes to operate casinos. The Mississippi Choctaw targeted this as a new economic opportunity and in 1994 they opened their first of three casinos, the Silver Star which was followed by the Pearl River Resort and Bok Homa.  Further expansion includes the magnificent new Cultural Center near their tribal headquarters.

Their website welcome from Chief Phyliss J. Anderson, the first female Tribal Chief reads: “We are the only Federally-Recognized American Indian Tribe living in the State of Mississippi.  We are 10,000 members strong. Our Choctaw lands cover over 35,000 acres in ten different counties in Mississippi. Providing permanent, full-time jobs for over 5,000 Tribal-member and non-Indian employees, the Tribe is a major contributor to the state’s economy.”

Sources: The Mississippi Band of Choctaw website; Time-Life Books, the American Indians, Tribes of the Southern Woodlands;  Charles Hudson, The Southeastern Indians; Native Americans of the Southeast, Christina M Girod; and William Walters, 1979, Three Efforts at Development Among the Choctaw of Mississippi.

Casino/Racino Gaming Across the Generations

We can see the effects of the generational shift in Vegas. More people visiting, but gambling represents just 37 percent of casino revenues, compared with 58% in the 1990s. Some feel that there’s an obvious reason – the lower average age of visitors, from 50 in 2009 to 45 in 2013 (Millennials and Money: Taking Sin Out Of Sin City). So how do casinos tailor to each generations’ wants and needs, and at the same time avoid alienating the older generations? We’ll take a look at players' habits and changes in each generation, with some additional focus on everyone’s favorite topic, the Millennials.

• Millennials/Generation Y (1981-2000, ages 15-34) – They’re game changers! Disruptors! We’ll give some extra space to everyone’s favorite topic, the Millennials – What do they want? How do casinos bring them to the gaming floor?
• Generation X (1965-1980, ages 35-50) - This year, the first of the Generation X cohort will celebrate their 50^th birthday, and the 50+ group has long been the most profitable for casinos. Gen X has been busy raising families, paying mortgages and suffered during the financial crisis, but this generation is now finding its footing. With older kids and stable careers, Gen X might be ready to party.
• Baby Boomers (1946-1964, ages 51-69) – This generation has been the cherished and targeted group for casinos. How do casinos maintain this generation’s loyalty at the same time they’re trying to woo new generations?
• The Silent Generation, ages 70-88 – Don’t write this generation off too quickly; age 70+ is not what it used to be. Seniors are healthier than ever and living their lives to the fullest, ready to enjoy life and even try new experiences. 

We'll also look at some regional differences we see in the southeast. Have you noticed differences in players' habits at casinos? In the games they play or activities they pursue? We'd love to hear from you!

“The Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew”

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was federally recognized in 1924 by a proclamation of a joint session of the United States House of Representatives and Senate. This recognition is separate from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. The history of this Tribe and the Cherokee Tribe of Oklahoma is among the most disturbing, dramatic and shameful acts of the United States Government.

At the time of President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act in 1830, the Cherokee Tribe was considered by European Americans and other whites to be the most “civilized” tribe in America. Of all the native peoples residing in America the Cherokees had progressed the most toward organizing themselves in ways the United States Government, whites and European-Americans advocated. John Ridge, a prominent Cherokee orator declared: “You asked us to throw out the hunter and warrior state: We did so. You asked us to form a republican government: We did so – adopting your own as a model. You asked us to cultivate the earth and learn the mechanic arts: We did so. You asked us to learn to read and write: We did so. You asked us cast away our idols and worship your God: We did so.” 

In an attempt to avoid removal, the Cherokee went to the Supreme Court in 1832 with their claim of sovereignty, their right to defy restrictions placed on them by the states and have a government-to-government relationship with the United States, and won. The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the Cherokee repudiating Georgia’s authority over their territory. Cherokees were now of the belief that they were free from state coercion, but neither Georgia or the federal government would honor the ruling. President Jackson said: “John Marshall has made his decision, let him enforce it now if he can.”

However, in 1835 a U.S. treaty commissioner summoned the Cherokee to Georgia, stating that all who failed to attend would be regarded as approving the actions taken there. Only a few hundred attended, and approved a treaty saying that the Cherokee move west to the Indian Territory by 1838. This treaty gave Andrew Jackson the excuse and power to move ahead with the removal in spite of a petition against signing of the treaty by more than 15,000 Cherokees.

In May 1838, nearly 17,000 Cherokee clung to their homelands. President Van Buren dispatched 7,000 troops with authority to call up the state militiamen and round up the Cherokee and impound them. Over 26 days, soldiers scoured the area. Cherokee men were seized from behind their plows, women dragged from their homes. Entire families were plucked from their homes and sometimes separated. Most of the Cherokees who were herded to the stockades only had time to take their clothes on their backs. Their homes, furnishings, farms and livestock fell prey to whites who followed the roundup squads. They were reported as looting homes and graves, stripping the corpses of silver pendants and valuables. A Georgia volunteer who later served as a Colonel in the Confederate Army said years afterwards, “I fought through the Civil War and seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by the thousands, the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.”

Over 4,000 Cherokees were killed or died during their capture or on the Trail of Tears to their new home west of the Mississippi. About 1,400 Cherokees remained behind. Many of the early white settlers were single white men who had married Cherokee women and were exempt from the forced relocation. They, along with a small group who had eluded the roundup retreated to the mountains of North Carolina. For those who stayed behind it would be 86 years before the United States government would recognize them as a sovereign nation. After 1835 the North Carolina Indians lived on small farms in poverty.  By 1855 citizenship was still an unresolved issue.  North Carolina Governor Thomas Bragg claimed that the Cherokee were not North Carolina citizens, as they did not “exercise the rights of ordinary citizens.” But they were allowed the “right” to pay taxes on the property they owned.

Cherokee Chief William Taylor bought land in Qualla Town and the surrounding area through 1860. Much of this land is now Qualla Boundary, the territory which is now the home of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee.

The U.S. government continued with their desires to either assimilate, relocate, or eliminate the Eastern Cherokees. Their final effort came in the name of the famous 1924 Baker Roll requiring land, money, and other property along with the names of all owners be transferred to the United States for final disposition. Termination of the Tribe as a government and political entity was the ultimate goal. This final roll of the Eastern Cherokee was prepared by United States Agent Fred A. Baker. The termination failed on the vote of the U.S. Congress. Instead, on June 24, 1924 by Act of Congress, the Eastern Band of Cherokee were granted full citizenship on all those included in the Baker Roll.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians was now a federally recognized Indian Tribe. Their land was and remains a unique territory in the United States. The Eastern Cherokee do not live on land that was given to them by the federal government; they live on the Qualla Boundary, their own land, land that they had bought piece by piece after the Trail of Tears and throughout the 1800s. It is not an Indian Reservation. The 82.60 square miles of land is owned by the Eastern Cherokee, held in trust by the federal government…by choice of the Eastern Cherokee people.

Today the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a sovereign nation within the boundaries of the United States. As such they maintain a nation-to-nation relationship with the United States Government. There are more than 13,000 enrolled members of the Tribe and over 60% live on Qualla Boundary lands.

The Tribe pays for its own school, water, sewer, and emergency services. Funding for the Tribes services and benefits to the tribe is provided for from a number of business entities including the ”Unto These Hills” presentation, their Eastern Cherokee Museum, the Cherokee Bingo entity and a magnificent Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Resort. A second Casino and Hotel, The Cherokee Valley River Casino and Hotel, is scheduled to open in September 2015 in the Murphy, North Carolina area. Finally, the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual which sells traditional arts and crafts made by its members is the country’s oldest and foremost Native American crafts cooperative. 

Sources:  The Eastern Band of Cherokees 1819 – 1900 by John R. Finger;  Access Genealogy web site; Tribes of the Southern Woodlands, Time-Life Books; The Southeastern Indians by Charles Hudson; Trail of Tears, The Rise and Fall of the Cherokee nation by John Ehle; and various web sites.