Cherokee’s June 1 Primary Election whittled the field of candidates for Birdtown Tribal Council down to four, and they will face off during the General Election Thursday, Sept. 7. 

With much of the conversation taking place in closed session, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council passed a trio of resolutions Aug. 3 pertaining to the tribally owned EBCI Holdings LLC.

Pactiv Evergreen has been issued its second notice of violation in less than a month, bringing its total since May 2021 up to 15 — more than one violation every two months, on average.

The Cherokee Tribal Council has approved $946,000 in tribal dollars to go toward the Cannabis Control Board’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year starting in October. 

Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail celebrates kickoff 

As voters ponder the ballot for executive offices within the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians next month, they’ll be looking at a list of familiar names. 

Groups file intent to sue Forest Service 

When the impending closure of Canton’s paper mill was announced in March, conservation professionals predicted a swift improvement  in downstream water quality once papermaking stopped.

In response to a July 10 notice of violation accusing Pactiv Evergreen of illegally dumping unused chemicals  into the wastewater treatment plant at its now-shuttered Canton paper mill, the company has submitted a letter  stating that it acted “on a good faith belief” and that the discharge was legal. 

Only three candidates are running for the two Tribal Council seats representing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ farthest-flung township, which includes tribal members living in Cherokee County and the Snowbird area of Graham County.

Tribal members could see their per capita checks grow after the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians expands its gaming business in accordance with a new state law  authorizing sports wagering in North Carolina. 

In response to what he says are ongoing issues with transparency on the part of the tribe’s cannabis business Qualla Enterprises LLC, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Richard Sneed introduced an ordinance  during the July 13 Tribal Council session clarifying certain aspects of the relationship between tribal government and its LLCs. 

When new fees went into effect  in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park March 1, park managers were expecting limited revenues and limited compliance during their inaugural year enforcing the Smokies’ first-ever parking fee. But four months in, both metrics are coming in higher than anticipated. 

During the General Election Thursday, Sept. 7, Big Cove voters will weigh in on who they want to see represent them on Tribal Council for the first time this year.

After voting unanimously  in April to put a proposed constitution on the ballot for approval this year, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council voted 11-1 Thursday, July 13, to indefinitely postpone the planned referendum. 

As temperatures neared 90 degrees on the sunny afternoon of Sunday, July 16, the forested Carolina Mountain Trail offered a shady respite for the 20 people joining Tom Southard for a 2.1-mile hike through the woods of the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. 

An effort to build a 19.4-mile rail trail between Brevard and Hendersonville got a huge boost following the award of more than $45 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

After a narrow passage in Tribal Council, the September ballot is expected to ask Cherokee voters whether they support legalizing cannabis use for adults 21 and older.

When sports wagering started in Cherokee  two years ago, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ two casinos were the only places in North Carolina where such wagers were legal.

Cherokee’s June 1 Primary Election whittled the field of candidates for Painttown Tribal Council down to four, and they will face off during the General Election Thursday, Sept. 7. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is trying for the first true census of its citizens in more than 20 years with an electronic-only census open to tribal members through Aug. 31. 

Located up a narrow mountain road in a building about the size of an average single-family house, the Balsam Mountain Trust Nature Center is tiny compared to Executive Director Michael Wall’s last professional home, the San Diego Natural History Museum in California. 

In a notice of violation  issued Monday, July 10, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has accused Pactiv Evergreen of dumping chemicals directly into its wastewater treatment system rather than disposing of them properly, as required by the company’s permit. 

Over nearly three hours Wednesday, June 21, Tribal Council heard from attorneys offering dire warnings about the unintended consequences that could befall the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians should it adopt a proposed constitution  — and from tribal members imploring the body to trust voters to decide whether the document should become the tribe’s first constitution in more than 150 years.

The massive employee turnover  Western Carolina University has seen over the past two years is now trending downward, but the university is still parting ways with more employees than was the norm before 2020.

Harold McCarson isn’t surprised to see a deer standing in the road as he steps out of the familiar white farmhouse that served as the headquarters of Pisgah View Ranch for decades.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, June 27, the National Park Service airlifted the wreckage of a 1983 plane crash near Waterrock Knob that has proven popular with both hikers and travel writers.

The paper mill has been closed for years now, but the cleanup is ongoing.

With less than two years gone since Tropical Storm Fred destroyed lives and property  along the Pigeon River in Haywood County, flood resiliency remains top of mind for local leaders.

Shannon Young has no trouble identifying the exact moment he fell in love with fly fishing. 

In an explosive federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina, the victim of a December 2022 police shooting in Cherokee County seeks millions of dollars in damages while laying out the sequence of alleged violations of policy and law that led to what he says was an attempted murder by police. The shots were fired by members of the Cherokee Indian Police Department, which had been called to assist the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.

A After years of enrollment and retention numbers impacted by the pandemic and its associated restrictions, Western Carolina University expects to see the rebound continue when students return to campus this fall.

Principal Chief Richard Sneed renewed his concerns about the tribe’s medical cannabis company Qualla Enterprises LLC before Tribal Council this month when he presented a resolution requesting a forensic audit of the company’s finances.

Whenever Wes Eason runs across a potential customer who’s hesitant about eating farm-raised fish, he points to the picture on the front of the Sunburst Trout Farms brochure.

In a narrowly divided vote Thursday, June 1, the Cherokee Tribal Council delayed deciding on a resolution seeking to upend a planned referendum  to approve the tribe’s first constitution in more than 150 years.

Former Principal Chief Michell Hicks will seek a fourth term as top executive for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians after dominating the field in a Primary Election held Thursday, June 1.

A coalition working to remove the aged Ela Dam in Swain County has raised $8 million of an estimated $10 million needed to complete the project.

The tribe’s financial future was the crux of the conversation when all six candidates in this year’s race for principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians appeared for a debate Wednesday, May 17, at the Joyce Dugan Auditorium at Cherokee Central Schools.