Two defendants in a marriage fraud case set to go to trial Monday, May 14, have opted to enter a guilty plea instead. 

A resolution seeking to reverse a ban on non-Cherokee media outlets — enacted by the Cherokee Tribal Council Thursday, April 5 — was withdrawn from the agenda when Council convened for its May 3 meeting. 

Cherokee attorney Robert Saunooke will no longer be allowed to practice law on the Qualla Boundary following a recent ruling from the Cherokee Tribal Court. 

In 2013, Western Carolina University cut the ribbon on 7-mile trail system zig-zagging an otherwise unbuildable piece of university property. Over the five years since, the trails have become an indispensible resource for mountain bikers — as well as trail runners and hikers — in the Cullowhee area, and last fall a trio of WCU employees set out to back up those observations with hard numbers. 

Following the May 2017 impeachment of then-Principal Chief Patrick Lambert, tribal member Lori Taylor lost her job with the Tribal Prosecutor’s Office when charges were filed against her alleging disorderly conduct. Now, nearly a year later, the case has gone to trial with a six-member jury taking less than half an hour to return a verdict of not guilty. 

Following a 383-2 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation transferring the property to the tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is one step closer to gaining ownership of 76 ancestrally important acres in Tennessee. 

The Cherokee Tribal Council voted unanimously to formalize rules governing who has final authority over procedures in the council house, but the ordinance elicited criticism from some who feel it doesn’t do enough to protect the rights of enrolled members to address their elected officials. 

Editor’s note: This column first appeared in an April 2003 edition of The Smoky Mountain News.

Bears have always held a special attraction for human beings. In a chapter titled “Killing the Sacred Bear” in his monumental study The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (1922), Sir James George Frazer traced the reverence for bears among the Ainu people of Japan and the Gilyats in Siberia. 

For the first time in the Southwestern Commission’s 53-year history, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has a seat at the table. 

Allegations made by a member of Cherokee Tribal Council against a Smoky Mountain News reporter have resulted in a ban on all non-Cherokee media from Tribal Council chambers.