Mary Smith Sneed was just four or five years old the day a wagon rolled up as she played outside near the family home at Mingo Falls. The wagon stopped, and a Cherokee man named John Crowe greeted her. Crowe, who also happened to be a truant officer employed by the Cherokee Boarding School, invited her to get in the wagon.

Just four days after the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ election season officially began, Principal Chief Richard Sneed announced his intention to seek re-election.

Dennis Edward “Bill” Taylor, a fourth-term Wolfetown representative on the Cherokee Tribal Council, is facing a trio of criminal charges following an Oct. 6 incident in which he allegedly rammed his truck into his wife’s vehicle as she attempted to flee.

Painttown Rep. Tommye Saunooke, 82, passed away on Sunday, Oct. 9, in the midst of her 12th consecutive term on the Cherokee Tribal Council.

One day after the seven-year anniversary of the Valley River Casino’s grand opening just outside of Murphy, tribal officials and casino executives gathered under a bluebird sky Thursday, Sept. 29, to break ground on an expansion project whose budget is more than double that of the initial construction.

National Public Lands Day dawned crisp and cool Saturday, Sept. 24, a celebration of everything most beloved about fall in Western North Carolina — sunrise pinks and oranges streaking the skies above the ridgeline; clear, dry air carrying an invigorating early-morning chill; bright sunshine focusing the world beneath warm rays as the sky brightened, revealing mountainsides tinged with hints of red and yellow, rogue branches overly eager for the autumnal wardrobe change.

Starting in March, members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians may have the chance to sign up for a program that will let them receive casino distributions without reporting them as income on federal taxes.

Term limits could be on the chopping block in Cherokee’s updated election ordinance due to legal advice arguing that the current law, which restricts chiefs and vice chiefs to two consecutive four-year terms, conflicts with the tribe’s Charter and Governing Document.

Navigating the darkened exhibit halls at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian is slow work on Wednesday evening, Sept. 7. Cherokee people — many wearing traditional ribbon skirts and beadwork — throng the halls, cluster around exhibit cases, and point proudly at the displays of brightly colored artwork that pop alongside the neutral color palette of the archeological objects surrounding them.

On Oct. 1, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will start a new fiscal year with $732.5 million in the budget after Tribal Council unanimously approved the document Thursday, Sept. 2. Of the total, $241.3 million will go to the operating fund, up from $196 million last year.