Kathi Littlejohn can get lost in stories. Especially Cherokee stories. Their origins are often moored in worlds long past, but these stories have a tendency to twist through the years to end up knocking on the door of modernity. 

“One of my first jobs as a teenager was working at the Oconaluftee Indian Village, which I absolutely loved. I was a tour guide,” recalled Littlejohn, who is now 63. “And on bad weather days when it was real slow, it was so much fun for me to sit with the people that were doing the crafts or some of the older guides and listen to stories.”

Pension plan double-dipping is prompting the Cherokee Tribal Council to consider tripling the number of years required to draw from the tribe’s retirement plan from five to 15. 

A Cherokee woman who successfully fought off disorderly conduct charges earlier this year has filed suit against nine parties in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians government, claiming that she’d been subjected to years of hostile working conditions and sexual harassment leading up to the criminal charge, which she said was based on a fabricated version of events. 

New parking is coming to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino following the Cherokee Tribal Council’s unanimous vote Aug. 2 to transfer a 4.7-acre tract to the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise. 

A brief conversation in Tribal Council Wednesday, Aug. 1, was the first public discussion on how the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians might eventually regulate the commercial use of culturally sensitive names since the issue was raised following the launch of 7 Clans Brewing. 

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. 

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will seek $280 million in credit to fund a list of five priority projects following a 9-2 vote during Tribal Council’s July 10 Budget Council meeting.

Long-debated plans to renovate the old Cherokee Indian Hospital building as a crisis stabilization unit will now move forward following a 9-2 vote from Tribal Council to appropriate $31 million in funding. 

The Macon County Airport Authority may have hit a roadblock in the planning process for a project that will add another 1,000 feet to the runway. 

A Cherokee resident will spend four years in federal prison for his involvement in the 2015 stabbing death of 25-year-old Tyler Gaddis, of Whittier.