Archaeologists estimate that the Cherokee people first arrived in these mountains about one thousand years ago.  In its day, the Cherokee territory stretched from the Ohio River south into what is today Alabama and Georgia.

Throughout this territory, the Cherokee Nation was subdivided into seven clans, exercising local autonomy and generally governed by consensus, with all adults having a voice.  Women shared equal status with men in matters of government and decision-making.  Each village had two chiefs:  one to govern domestic affairs, and one to govern matters of war and conflict.  The family structure was matrilineal; that is, when a man married, he assumed his bride's lineage, and moved in with her family.

Contrary to the images seen in movies, the Cherokee did not live in teepees, but instead established permanent villages with log or clay cabins and other buildings.  Nor did they wear the feathered headdresses associated with western plains Indians. Such headgear would have been impractical in the dense vegetation of the mountains. Instead, they wrapped their heads in turbans or scarves.

In 1540, a Spanish expedition led by Hernando de Soto arrived in the Land of Blue Smoke.  Over the next three centuries, more and more white settlers entered the area, and the conflict over who would possess the land escalated until 1836, when President Andrew Jackson signed the Removal Act, dictating that all native people east of the Mississippi River be "removed" to lands in what is now Oklahoma.  The U.S. Supreme Court overturned this act, but President Jackson ignored the ruling, and the Cherokee Removal came about in 1838.

Thirteen thousand Cherokee undertook this forced march of 1,200 miles - many on foot - through the harsh winter of 1838.  Fully a third of these people perished of starvation, exposure or disease.  History remembers this act of inhumanity as the "Trail of Tears."

A small number of Cherokees fled into the higher regions of the mountains to escape the removal.  Among these was a man named Tsali, accused of killing a U.S. soldier.  Realizing the futility of trying to apprehend those fugitives hiding in the mountain wilderness, the U.S. government agreed that, in exchange for Tsali's surrender (and subsequent execution), the remaining fugitive Cherokees would be allowed to remain in their homeland.

This small population became the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, and in 1889 the Qualla Boundary Indian Reservation was chartered.  This 56,000-acre reservation now borders the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The economy of the Qualla Boundary Reservation now centers around tourism.  The city of Cherokee, North Carolina, lies at the southern entrance to the National Park, a breathtaking scenic drive from Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee.