Travis Smith began his career with the Tribal Alcohol and Beverage Control Commission on Feb. 27, 2024. He was guaranteed a four-year term until a fellow TABCC member submitted a grievance to the Eastern Band of Cherokee’s Office of Internal Audit and Ethics Aug. 14 of this year. 

Lavita Hill has dreamed of joining tribal council since high school. 

Painttown’s Shannon Swimmer feels less like she’s taking on responsibility with her new role — and more that she’s “stepping into it.”

Shennelle Feather of Yellowhilll took the leap because she saw the right opportunity. 

In October 2019, Rhiannon Skye Tafoya was a year out of her master’s program and excited to begin an art residency at the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York. Tafoya, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Santa Clara Pueblo, planned to use her time there to create an artist book. 

October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), a time to raise our collective consciousness about family violence in our community and to highlight the critical support systems available for survivors locally.  

Across the United States, Indigenous women face an epidemic of violence that is as urgent as it is often overlooked. For Cherokee families on the Qualla Boundary, these statistics are not abstract as they echo across homes, schools and community gatherings. 

My office is cool and our building on Montgomery Street in Waynesville is quiet. Almost everyone who works at The Smoky Mountain News has gone home for a few minutes to tend to kids, dogs, wives and husbands as it’s one hour before the annual first Friday in June birthday bash celebrating another year of putting out this weekly print newspaper (and now a seven-day-per-week news website).  

I started this annual feature nearly a decade ago to poke fun at the emerging scourge of fake news — lies, really — that had popped up at local government meetings. It was a prophetic move, unfortunately, and in the intervening nine or so years it’s only gotten worse. 

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted to change the name of Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi.

Kuwohi is the Cherokee name for the mountain and translates to “mulberry place.” In Cherokee syllabary, the name is ᎫᏬᎯ.  

Beginning this Saturday, Sept. 7, anyone over the age of 21 will be able to purchase and use marijuana on the Qualla Boundary.  

Beginning, Sept. 7, anyone over the age of 21 will be able to purcha se and use marijuana on the Qualla Boundary.  

While the official announcement was made at 10:22 a.m. in the form of a post on the Great Smoky Cannabis Company’s X page, the news actually broke about an hour earlier during an Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council meeting. At the end of that meeting, Council Rep. Richard French, of the Big Cove community made it official.