Editing Qualla Boundary (section)

==History==
[[Image:Qualla Indian Reservation (NC).jpg|thumb|right|upright|"Qualla Indian Reservation" sign in North Carolina; text of 1975 sign included in article]]
The [[Cherokee]] and their ancestors have long occupied the area, having migrated there centuries before Europeans arrived. During their colonial expansion west, European settlers sometimes came into conflict with the Cherokee, whose territory extended into present-day Tennessee and northern Georgia. After the late 18th century and warfare with American settlers during and after the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], many of the Cherokee moved farther south along the [[Tennessee River]], into Georgia and westward into Alabama, establishing at least eleven new towns {{Citation needed |date=May 2021}}.

[[File:Map of the Qualla Indian Reserve Boundary NC.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Map of the Qualla Indian Reserve (circa 1890)]]
[[Image:Qualla Arts and Crafts, Cherokee, NC IMG 4892.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Qualla Arts and Crafts Center in [[Cherokee, North Carolina]]]]
The Cherokee were forcibly removed in the late 1830s from much of this area, especially the [[Black Belt in the American South|Black Belt]] in Georgia and Alabama, under federal authority as authorized by Congress in the 1830 [[Indian Removal Act]]. They were relocated to [[Indian Territory]] west of the Mississippi River, in what is the present-day state of Oklahoma.

During the winter of 1838 and early the spring of 1839, the U.S. Federal Government relocated approximately 11,000 Cherokee from their homeland in North Carolina, in what is known as the [[Trail of Tears]]. Some of the Cherokee were able to evade the initial removal and hide in the [[Great Smoky Mountains]], some were free to stay on their lands because of earlier treaties, but the majority of the Cherokee people were removed from the land. This was when the main struggle for land at what became the Qualla Boundary began.<ref>{{Cite web|title=NCGenWeb Project {{!}} North Carolina Genealogy Resources|url=https://www.ncgenweb.us/|language=en-US|access-date=May 1, 2020 }}</ref>

The Qualla Boundary was first surveyed in 1876 by M. S. Temple under the auspices of the United States Land Office. These pieces were embodied in a map published as the ''Map of the Qualla Indian reserve''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=cdm/ref/collection/ncmaps&CISOPTR=/id/1055 |title=Map of the Qualla Indian Reserve (Boundary) N.C. :: North Carolina Maps|website=dc.lib.unc.edu}}</ref> The Qualla Boundary is a [[land trust]] supervised by the United States [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]]. The land is a fragment of the extensive historical homeland of the Cherokee in the region and was considered part of the [[Cherokee Nation (19th century)|Cherokee Nation]] during the 19th century, prior to certain treaties and Indian Removal in the 1830s. [[William Holland Thomas]] had lived and worked among the Cherokee people for a good portion of his life. He had a knowledge of their traditions and language and was close friends with some members of the tribe. The Cherokee valued and respected Thomas; he had studied law and was adopted into the tribe and named as successor by its hereditary chief. He is the only European American to have served as chief in their history.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mitchell|first=Anne|date=1997|title=Culture, History, and Development on the Qualla Boundary|journal=Appalachian Journal and Appalachian State University|volume=24}}</ref>

Thomas purchased lands around the [[Oconaluftee River]] for the tribe, the total area adding up to around 50,000 acres; the purchased lands are a large part of what makes up the Boundary today. The Cherokee organized and formed a corporation in 1870 to be able to purchase and hold additional lands.<ref name="qualla1" /> The Cherokee who gained the ability to live in North Carolina were considered to be an independent band from the Cherokee Nation living in Oklahoma.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Criminal Jurisdiction on the Qualla Boundary|url=https://nccriminallaw.sog.unc.edu/|last=Denning|first=Shea|date=July 10, 2019|website=NC Criminal Law Blog {{!}} UNC Chapel Hill School of Government|language=en-US|access-date=March 31, 2020 }}</ref>

In the 1930s, the federal government requested the tribe to cede land for the construction of a new motorway, called the [[Blue Ridge Parkway]], that would cut through the Qualla Boundary to end at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.<ref name="Mitchell">{{cite journal |last1 = Mitchell |first1 = Anne V. |title = Culture, History, and Development on the Qualla Boundary |journal = Appalachian Journal |date = Winter 1997 |volume = 24 |issue = 2 |pages = 144–191 |jstor = 40933835 }}</ref> The tribe resisted the federal government, which initially wanted the land for free. In 1939, the tribe and the federal government reached an agreement and signed a pact for right-of-way acquisition; in return the federal government would make a $40,000 payment for the tribe's land, require the state to build a regular highway through the Soco Valley ([[U.S. Route 19 in North Carolina|US&nbsp;19]]), and transfer two other parcels to the tribe, known as the Boundary Tree tract (north of [[U.S. Route 441 in North Carolina|US&nbsp;441]], near the national park entrance) and [[Ravensford Site|Ravensford tract]] (east of the Oconaluftee River and Raven Fork confluence).<ref name="Mitchell" /><ref>{{cite book |last1= French |first1= Laurence |last2= Hornbuckle |first2= Jim |date= 1981 |title= The Cherokee Perspective: Written by Eastern Cherokees |url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED211242.pdf |location= Boone, NC |publisher= Appalachian Coinsortium Press |page= 29 }}</ref><ref name="Ravensford">{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |url=https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/1555-parkway-right-of-way-battle-hard-fought-through-cherokee |title=Parkway right-of-way battle hard-fought through Cherokee |date=November 18, 2009 |newspaper=Smoky Mountain News |location=Waynesville, NC |access-date=November 23, 2023 }}</ref> Two years later, the U.S. Congress decided not to give the tribe the Ravensford tract as stated in the pact. In 2003, the tribe negotiated a land swap with the federal government; this involved the tribe buying {{convert|218|acres}} near [[Waterrock Knob]] then trading it for the Ravensford tract. In 2009, [[Cherokee Central Schools]] opened a $140 million school campus on the Ravensford tract.<ref name="Ravensford" />