After pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault in federal court last August, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council Member Rep. Bo Crowe — who represents Wolfetown — has been sentenced to two years’ probation for an incident that occurred in January 2023.

In a unanimous vote during Annual Council Monday, Oct. 24, the Cherokee Tribal Council passed an ordinance to strengthen the tribe’s ability to enforce its banishment rules. It’s been refining the legislation since March and discussing the topic for much longer.

During a special called meeting Thursday, Sept. 29, the Cherokee Tribal Council passed an update to the tribe’s election ordinance that gets rid of term limits for executive offices and makes absentee voting available to all tribal members, regardless of residence or employment.

A unanimous vote from the Cherokee Tribal Council puts the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on track to start prosecuting a range of offenses by non-Indians that it had previously been powerless to punish, beginning Oct. 1.

Victims of crime on the Qualla Boundary will now have a defined list of rights to rely on as they navigate the legal process, following unanimous passage of an ordinance  before Tribal Council Thursday, March 1. 

A man claiming the courts misled him when accepting his guilty plea. A woman with a disability contending termination from her job amounted to unlawful discrimination. A man convicted of murder in 1976 arguing that new facts show that he is innocent. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is in the midst of an effort to overhaul its elections laws, with a Sept. 30 deadline to take a final vote if the new rules are to apply for the September 2019 elections. 

Cherokee attorney Robert Saunooke will no longer be allowed to practice law on the Qualla Boundary following a recent ruling from the Cherokee Tribal Court. 

The Cherokee Tribal Council voted unanimously to formalize rules governing who has final authority over procedures in the council house, but the ordinance elicited criticism from some who feel it doesn’t do enough to protect the rights of enrolled members to address their elected officials. 

Nine months after arguments concluded in a dispute over the process used to impeach then-Principal Chief Patrick Lambert, the Cherokee Supreme Court issued a full, 22-page opinion on the matter.