Thousands died in the war, and the tribe wound up forfeiting most of their South Carolina acreage. Their allegiance would prove costly in lives and land. Those who remained fought alongside the British, believing King George’s 1763 proclamation that he would forbid any white settlements in or west of the Appalachian Mountains. By the time of the American Revolution, only 20,000 Cherokee survived. Those numbers nosedived when European diseases, especially smallpox, ravaged the tribe. When Europeans began encountering the Cherokee in the sixteenth century, they estimated there were more than fifty Cherokee villages with a combined population of 100,000. Of course, the Boundary (as residents call it) has been Cherokee-claimed land for hundreds of years, along with vast territory throughout the southeastern United States. Outsiders often refer to this territory as a reservation, but it was not given to the Cherokee by the government-tribal members assembled it through a series of purchases during the early nineteenth century. Spanning some 56,000 acres, the land has waterfalls and forests, hiking trails and trout-filled streams. In western North Carolina, in a fog-ribboned valley among the peaks of the Smoky Mountains, 16,000 Cherokee reside within the Qualla Boundary. It was better, they determined, to live with only part of the land than to die in the struggle for it all. Instead of continuing to wage war on one another, they decided to create a boundary and divide the grounds. On the fourth day, their leaders met in secret on the land to which they both laid claim. For three days and three nights, they fought without ceasing, until both sides feared they might perish. Passed down through generations, the tale describes a violent clash between the two tribes deep in the southern Piedmont. It’s tourists.Īn ancient story tells of a battle over hunting grounds that took place between the Cherokee and the Catawba centuries ago.

Only this time, what they are battling over isn’t water or captives or trade routes. As accusations fly and politicians take sides, two tribes that warred for centuries find themselves at odds once again. But there is a problem: The land the Catawba have settled upon for their casino-land they assert belonged to their ancestors-is also claimed by the Cherokee. Now South Carolina’s Catawba tribe wants to do the same. In North Carolina, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians found a way to take care of their people: In 1997, they opened a casino on their lands.

Casinos near cherokee north carolina