History
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".
The Qualla Boundary is not a reservation, but rather 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. It was considered part of the Cherokee Nation during the nineteenth century prior to certain treaties and Indian Removal in the 1830s. William Thomas, adopted as a boy by the chief Yonaguska, bought much of the land for use of the Cherokee who remained in North Carolina after removal. Although he had assimilated as a Cherokee, he was white and able to buy land, which the Cherokee could not.
The Qualla Boundary was considered a reservation as recently as 1975. A United States Department of Interior sign, entitled "Qualla Indian Reservation", reads:
| “ | The Cherokee domain once extended far beyond the distant mountains, but the white man, with broken treaties and fruitless promises, brought trouble to the Indians and caused their banishment to an Oklahoma reservation. A few escaped capture and fled into the Great Smokies, eventually forming the Eastern Band that now lives on the Qualla Reservation in the valley below. | ” |
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