Qualla Boundary

The Qualla Boundary is the homeland of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, about 83 square miles of mountain land in western North Carolina, bordering Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Its people descend mainly from Cherokee along the Oconaluftee River who avoided the forced removal of 1838 and 1839 that sent most of the Cherokee west on the Trail of Tears. The tribe prefers the name Qualla Boundary to reservation, because its ancestors bought much of this land back after it was taken, and it is now held in federal trust.

The town of Cherokee is the tribe's seat and the gateway to the Smokies. In 1996 the tribe reacquired Kituwah, a mound site more than a thousand years old regarded as the Cherokee mother town. Harrah's Cherokee casino, opened in 1997, is the tribe's economic engine, and in 2024 the tribe opened the first legal cannabis dispensary in North Carolina on its own land, although state law still prohibits marijuana. Enrollment requires descent from the 1924 Baker Roll.

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  The most visited national park in the country borders
• North Carolina
  The Tar Heel State, from the Blue Ridge to the Outer Banks located in
• The Appalachian Mountains
  The ancient, worn mountains of the eastern U.S. located in
• Cherokee Nation
  The largest of the Five Tribes, centered on Tahlequah related