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90-592: The Qualla Boundary or The Qualla is territory held as a land trust by the United States government for the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), who reside in Western North Carolina . The area is part of the large historic Cherokee territory in the Southeast, which extended into eastern Tennessee, western South Carolina, northern Georgia, and Alabama. Currently,

180-584: A homestead , which was untaxable and inalienable (ineligible to be sold) for twenty-one years, and seventy acres of surplus land which was inalienable for five years. In response to these actions, the leaders of the Five Civilized Tribes sought to gain approval for a new State of Sequoyah in 1905 that would have a Native American constitution and government. The proposal received a cool reception in Congress and failed. The tribal government of

270-404: A conservation easement to a land trust gives up some of the rights associated with the land. For example, the landowner might give up the right to build additional structures, while retaining the right to grow crops. Future owners also will be bound by the conservation easement's terms. The land trust is responsible for making sure the easement's terms are followed. This is done through monitoring of

360-557: A federal act (31 Stat. 1447) of March 3, 1901. The Cherokee called themselves the Ani-Yun' wiya . In their language ; this meant "leading" or "principal" people. Before 1794, the Cherokee had no standing national government. Its people were highly decentralized and lived in bands and clans according to a matrilineal kinship system. The people lived in towns located in scattered autonomous tribal areas related by kinship throughout

450-641: A large part of what makes up the Boundary today. The Cherokee organized and formed a corporation in 1870 to be able to purchase and hold additional lands. The Cherokee who gained the ability to live in North Carolina were considered to be an independent band from the Cherokee Nation living in Oklahoma. In the 1930s, the federal government requested the tribe to cede land for the construction of

540-643: A mountainous area in what later became the northeastern part of the future state of Alabama . U.S. president George Washington sought to " civilize " the southeastern American Indians, through programs overseen by US Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins . Facilitated by the destruction of many Indian towns during the American Revolutionary War , U.S. land agents encouraged Native Americans to abandon their historic communal-land tenure and settle on isolated subsistence farmsteads. Over-harvesting by

630-633: A new motorway, called the Blue Ridge Parkway , that would cut through the Qualla Boundary to end at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The tribe resisted the federal government, which initially wanted the land for free. In 1939, the tribe and the federal government reached an agreement and signed a pact for right-of-way acquisition; in return the federal government would make a $ 40,000 payment for

720-422: A report by Dominic P. Parker entitled Cost-Effective Strategies for Conserving Private Land . This paper identified numerous ways for operating land trusts more efficiently, pointing out that conservation easement and other tools for land preservation may be less costly than ownership. Sometimes the various rights associated with land ownership are separable. A preservationist organization may, for instance, buy only

810-532: A second location of the casino on their land in Murphy, North Carolina . The tribe has operated a court system since 1987. Tribal police have exclusive police jurisdiction on Indian lands. The FBI and other federal agencies have jurisdiction to handle certain major federal criminal offenses. N.C. State Highway Patrol , motor vehicle inspectors, wildlife officers, state alcohol agents, SBI agents, and other state peace officers assigned to counties that overlap with

900-686: A state and the Civil War ended, European-American settlers pushed out the Native Americans. Like the Delaware, the two Chippewa bands were relocated to the Cherokee Nation in 1866. They were so few in number that they eventually merged with the Cherokee. The Cherokee Freedmen were former African American slaves who had been owned by citizens of the Cherokee Nation during the Antebellum Period . In 1863, President Lincoln issued

990-402: A strict conservation easement attached. Land trusts use many different tools in their protection efforts. Land trusts buy or accept donations of land in fee. This means that the landowner will sell fee simple interest to the land trust or will just give the land they own to an organization. Landowners may also sell or donate a conservation easement to a land trust. A landowner that donates

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1080-522: A type of non-profit organisation that holds the freehold title to an area of land on behalf of a community of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people . Cherokee Nation (19th century) The Cherokee Nation consisted of the Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ —pronounced Tsalagi or Cha-la-gee ) people of the Qualla Boundary and the southeastern United States; those who relocated voluntarily from

1170-472: Is 213.934 km (82.6 sq mi), with a 2000 census resident population of 8,092 people. The Cherokee and their ancestors have long occupied the area, having migrated there centuries before Europeans arrived. During their colonial expansion west, European settlers sometimes came into conflict with the Cherokee, whose territory extended into present-day Tennessee and northern Georgia. After the late 18th century and warfare with American settlers during and after

1260-541: Is acquired, trusts will sometimes retain ownership of the land in perpetuity, or sell the land to a third party. This third party is often the government, which will usually add the land to an existing protected area, or create a new one entirely. Land trusts were instrumental in the 2004 creation of Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado , as well as the expansion of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park by 50% in 2003. Land trusts also sell land to private buyers, usually with

1350-481: Is common for conservation-minded landowners to donate an easement on their land, or the land itself. Some land trusts also receive funds from government programs to acquire, protect, and manage land. Some trusts can afford to pay employees, but many others depend entirely on volunteers. According to the 2005 National Land Trust Census, 31% of land trusts reported having at least one full-time staff member, 54% are all volunteer, and 15% have only part-time staff. When land

1440-427: Is not a reservation created by the government. Individuals can buy, own, and sell the land, provided they are enrolled members of EBCI tribe. Qualla comes from the Cherokee word kwalli ('old woman'). It refers to Polly, an elder Cherokee woman who lived in the area. The Qualla Boundary is located at 35°30′N 83°16′W  /  35.500°N 83.267°W  / 35.500; -83.267 . The main part of

1530-405: Is the depiction of this ancient king ( trustor ) which grants property back to its previous owner ( beneficiary ) during his absence, supported by witness testimony ( trustee ). In essence and in this case, the king, in place of the later state (trustor and holder of assets at highest position) issues ownership along with past proceeds ( equity ) back to the beneficiary: On the testimony of Gehazi

1620-479: Is the headquarters for outreach and involvement between residents in the Qualla Boundary and outside surrounding communities. It provides services including application process, transcript request, scholarships, internships placement, high school recruitment, as well as college level courses. The Cherokee Center is supported by an advisory board composed of representatives from the EBCI and Western Carolina University. In

1710-402: Is up to each organization to decide what type of land to protect according to its mission. Some areas have extremely limited public access for the protection of sensitive wildlife, or to allow recovery of damaged ecosystems . Many protected areas are under private ownership, which tends to limit access. However, in many cases, land trusts work to eventually open up the land in a limited way to

1800-645: The Curtis Act which extended the Dawes Act of 1887 over the Five Civilized Tribes , forcing dissolution of tribally held lands in favor of individual allotments of private property . It terminated the tribal courts, made tribal members subject to federal legislation, and gave the federal government the authority to determine tribal membership. The Curtis Act provided that residents of Indian Territory had voting rights in local elections and gave

1890-621: The Emancipation Proclamation which granted citizenship to all freedmen in the Confederate States, including those held by the Cherokee. In reaching peace with the Cherokee, the U.S. government required the freedom of their slaves and full Cherokee citizenship for those who wanted to stay with the nation. This was later guaranteed in 1866 under a treaty with the United States. This list of historic people includes only documented Cherokee living in, or born into,

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1980-517: The Five Civilized Tribes . All Five Tribes acknowledged "in writing that, because of the agreements they had made with the Confederate States during the Civil War, previous treaties made with the United States would no longer be upheld, thus prompting the need for a new treaty and an opportunity for the United States to fulfill its goal of wrenching more land" from their grasp. The new treaty established peace and requiring them to emancipate their slaves and to offer them citizenship and territory within

2070-735: The Five Civilized Tribes . The Curtis Act of 1898 extended the provisions of the Dawes Act to the Five Tribes, in preparation for the admission of Oklahoma as a state in 1907. It provided for the distribution of tribal lands to individuals and also gave the federal government the authority to determine who were members of each tribe. The Curtis Act provided that residents of Indian Territory had voting rights in local elections. Cherokee people, who were living in Indian Territory in 1901, were granted United States citizenship by virtue of

2160-684: The Revolutionary War , many of the Cherokee moved further south along the Tennessee River , into Georgia and westward into Alabama, establishing at least eleven new towns . The Cherokee were forcibly removed in the late 1830s from much of this area, especially the Black Belt in Georgia and Alabama, under federal authority as authorized by Congress in the 1830 Indian Removal Act . They were relocated to Indian Territory west of

2250-554: The U.S. federal government promised representatives of the state of Georgia to extinguish Native American titles to internal Georgia lands in return for the state's formal cession of its unincorporated western claim (which was made part of the Mississippi Territory ). Negotiating with states to give up western claims was part of the unfinished business from the American Revolution and establishing of

2340-527: The War of 1812 against Great Britain. He was the de facto principal chief from 1813–1827. The Cherokee Nation—East had first created electoral districts in 1817. By 1822, the Cherokee Supreme Court was founded. Lastly, the Cherokee Nation adopted a written constitution in 1827 that created a government with three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The Principal Chief was elected by

2430-1044: The World Land Trust . The goal of conservation trusts is to preserve sensitive natural areas, farmland, ranchland, water sources, cultural resources or notable landmarks. These include enormous international organizations such as The Nature Conservancy or World Land Trust , as well as smaller organizations that operate on national, state/provincial, county, and community levels. Conservation trusts often, but not always, target lands adjacent to or within existing protected areas. However, land areas that are particularly valuable in terms of natural or cultural resources or are home to endangered plant or wildlife are good candidates for receiving protection efforts. Land trusts conserve all different types of land. Some protect only farmland or ranchland, others forests, mountains, prairies, deserts, wildlife habitat, cultural resources such as archaeological sites or battlefields, urban parks, scenic corridors, coastlines, wetlands or waterways; it

2520-406: The deerskin trade had brought white-tailed deer in the region to the brink of extinction. Americans introduced pig and cattle raising, and these animals replaced deer as the principal sources of meat. The Americans supplied the tribes with spinning wheels and cotton -seed, and men were taught to fence and plow the land. (In the Cherokee traditional division of labor, most cultivation for farming

2610-839: The southeastern United States to the Indian Territory (circa 1820 —known as the "Old Settlers"); those who were forced by the Federal government of the United States to relocate (through the Indian Removal Act ) by way of the Trail of Tears (1830s); and descendants of the Natchez , the Lenape and the Shawnee peoples, and, after the Civil War and emancipation of slaves, Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants. The nation

2700-639: The 'arts of civilized life.' The Moravian, and later Congregationalist , missionaries also ran boarding schools. A select few students were chosen to be educated at the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions school in Connecticut . These men continued to be leaders in the tribe. Hicks participated in the Red Stick War , a civil war between traditional and progressive Creek factions. This coincided with part of US involvement in

2790-573: The 20th century. In 1866, some Delaware ( Lenape ) were relocated to the Cherokee Nation from Kansas, where they had been sent in the 1830s. Assigned to the northeast area of the Indian Territory, they united with the Cherokee Nation in 1867. The Delaware Tribes operated autonomously within the lands of the Cherokee Nation. The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area. The present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi developed in their former territory. By

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2880-605: The Brandywine Conservancy, led by Bill Sellers, convened land trusts using easements in December 1979. Browne invited the under-secretary of the Treasury for tax policy, who brought IRS staff Stephen Small. The land trusts agreed to hire lobbyists and coordinate efforts to influence the legislation, winning expansion of the conservation purposes for which easements would qualify for deductibility. Meanwhile, on

2970-468: The Cherokee Nation was dissolved in 1906. After this, the structure and function of the tribal government were not formally defined. The federal government occasionally designated chiefs of a provisional "Cherokee Nation", but usually just long enough to sign treaties. As the shortcomings of the arrangement became increasingly evident to the Cherokee, a demand arose for the formation of a more permanent and accountable tribal government. New administrations at

3060-549: The Cherokee Nation–West. There were seven officially recognized battles involving Native American units, who were either allied with the Confederate States of America or loyal to the United States government. 3,000 out of 21,000 members served as a soldier in the Confederacy. Several prominent members of the Cherokee Nation made contributions during the war: After the war, the United States negotiated new treaties with

3150-475: The Cherokee Outlet to cattlemen . The lease income had supported the Cherokee Nation in its efforts to prevent further encroachments on tribal lands. All Native people residing in Indian Territory were granted US citizenship under an act (31 Stat. 1447) of March 3, 1901. The Cherokee Nation entered an allotment agreement in 1902, which provided that each tribal citizen would receive forty acres as

3240-734: The Cherokee exchanged remaining communal lands in Georgia (north of the Hiwassee River ), Tennessee, and North Carolina for lands in the Arkansaw Territory west of the Mississippi River . A majority of the remaining Cherokee resisted these treaties and refused to leave their lands east of the Mississippi. Finally, in 1830, the United States Congress enacted the Indian Removal Act to bolster

3330-603: The Cherokee reunification council of 1809. Three important veterans of the Cherokee–American wars, James Vann (a successful businessman) and his two protégés, The Ridge (also called Ganundalegi or "Major" Ridge) and Charles R. Hicks , made up the younger 'Cherokee Triumvirate.' These leaders advocated acculturation of the people, formal education of the young, and introduction of European-American farming methods. In 1801 they invited Moravian missionaries to their territory from North Carolina to teach Christianity and

3420-595: The Cherokee to move there voluntarily. The reservation boundaries extended from north of the Arkansas River to the southern bank of the White River . The Cherokee who moved to this reservation became known as the "Old Settlers" or Western Cherokee. By additional treaties signed with the U.S., in 1817 ( Treaty of the Cherokee Agency, 8 July 1817 ) and 1819 ( Treaty of Washington, 27 February 1819 ),

3510-592: The Cherokee to side with the Confederacy, while Ross thought it better to remain neutral. This split was due to the Union's and Southern state's involvement of the Trail of Tears, which complicated the nation's political outlook. Within the first year of the war, general consensus in the nation moved towards siding with the Confederacy. Numerous skirmishes took place in the Trans-Mississippi area, which included

3600-461: The Confederacy free land. The study found that even though levels of inequality in 1860 were similar in the Cherokee Nation and the Confederacy, former black slaves prospered in the Cherokee Nation over the next decades. The Cherokee Nation had lower levels of racial inequality where blacks saw higher incomes, higher literacy rates, and greater school attendance. In 1898, the US Congress passed

3690-587: The Mississippi River, in what is the present-day state of Oklahoma. During the winter of 1838 and early the spring of 1839, the U.S. Federal Government relocated approximately 11,000 Cherokee from their homeland in North Carolina, in what is known as the Trail of Tears . Some of the Cherokee were able to evade the initial removal and hide in the Great Smoky Mountains , some were free to stay on their lands because of earlier treaties, but

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3780-666: The National Council, which was the legislature of the Nation. A similar constitution was adopted by the Cherokee Nation—West in 1833. The Constitution of the reunited Cherokee Nation was ratified at Tahlequah, Oklahoma on September 6, 1839, at the conclusion of " The Removal ". The signing is commemorated every Labor Day weekend with the celebration of the Cherokee National Holiday . In 1802,

3870-574: The Qualla Boundary can be called to assist tribal law enforcement officers, and can be commissioned as "special officers" of the Department of the Interior to assist in federal investigations. Non-tribal members charged with a crime in Qualla Boundary are referred to county courts. The Qualla Boundary is divided into seven communities, which are similar to townships . There are no municipalities, instead each community elects two representatives to

3960-608: The Qualla Boundary lies in eastern Swain and northern Jackson counties (just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park ). A small portion of the main trust lands extends eastward into Haywood County . The trust lands include many smaller non-contiguous sections to the southwest in Marble, Hiwassee, and Hanging Dog areas of Cherokee County , and the Snowbird community in Graham County . The total land area of these regions

4050-605: The US Department of Interior designated it a National Historic Landmark . The Nation was made up of scattered peoples mostly living in the Cherokee Nation–West and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (both residing in the Indian Territory by the 1840s), and the Cherokee Nation–East ( Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians ); these became the three federally recognized tribes of Cherokee in

4140-611: The Union army during the American Civil War . European Americans encroached and settled on their lands after the war. In 1869, the Cherokee Nation and Loyal Shawnee agreed that 722 of the Shawnee would be granted Cherokee citizenship. They settled in Craig and Rogers counties . The Anishinaabe -speaking Swan Creek and Black River Chippewa bands were removed from southeast Michigan to Kansas in 1839. After Kansas became

4230-564: The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs . The land is a fragment of the extensive historical homeland of the Cherokee in the region and was considered part of the Cherokee Nation during the 19th century, prior to certain treaties and Indian Removal in the 1830s. William Holland Thomas had lived and worked among the Cherokee people for a good portion of his life. He had a knowledge of their traditions and language and

4320-501: The United States, the land owned by the United States government and held in trust for Native American tribes and individuals is sometimes referred to as a land trust. In Australia, Aboriginal land trusts are a type of non-profit organisation that holds the freehold title to an area of land on behalf of a community of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people . Possible earliest concept of equity in land held in trust

4410-495: The United States, with most forming in the late twentieth century. There are also land trusts working in Canada (e.g. Nature Conservancy of Canada , Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy , Wildlife Preservation Canada , Edmonton & Area Land Trust , Ecotrust Canada , Georgian Bay Land Trust and Thames Talbot Land Trust), Mexico, and other countries worldwide, in addition to international land trusts like The Nature Conservancy and

4500-672: The United States. European Americans were seeking more land in what became known as the Deep South because of the expansion of cotton plantations. Invention of the cotton gin had made short-staple cotton profitable, and it could be cultivated in the uplands of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In 1815, the US government established a Cherokee Reservation in the Arkansaw district of the Missouri Territory and tried to convince

4590-436: The United States. The Alliance performs a National Land Trust Census that keeps track of the land protected by local and regional land trusts. The last Census, conducted in 2003, reported that these trusts have protected almost 9.4 million acres (38,000 km ) of land in the United States , double the 4.7 million acres (19,000 km ) recorded in the 1998 survey. Over 5 million acres (20,000 km ) of that

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4680-454: The community land trust...have historic roots" in the indigenous Americas, in pre-colonial Africa, and in ancient Chinese economic systems. Thus, "the goal is to 'restore' the land trust concept rather than initiate it." A real estate investment trust is a fiduciary arrangement whereby one party (the trustee ) agrees to own and to manage real property for the benefit of a limited number of beneficiaries . Land trusts used primarily for

4770-453: The extraction rights on a property with oil or minerals, and then rent those rights to extracters on the organization's terms. The terms might include requirements to protect the environment and pay the organization royalties on materials extracted. Many land trust organizations had already been using these strategies for years when this report was published. The Land Trust Alliance , formed in 1981, provides technical support to land trusts in

4860-527: The federal government the right to incorporate towns and establish public educational facilities. Under its terms tribal governments of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole Nations would be abolished on March 6, 1906 in preparation for uniting Indian and Oklahoma Territories into the State of Oklahoma. President Benjamin Harrison September 19, 1890, stopped the leasing of land in

4950-599: The federal level also recognized this issue, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration gained passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, encouraging tribes to re-establish governments and supporting more self-determination. The Cherokee convened a general convention on 8 August 1938 in Fairfield, Oklahoma , to elect a new Chief and reconstitute the Cherokee Nation . The Cherokee Nation

5040-600: The land by the trust. In other cases, the land will remain in private hands, but the trust will purchase a conservation easement on the property to prevent development, or purchase any mining, logging, drilling, or development rights on the land. Trusts also provide funding to assist like-minded private buyers or government organizations to purchase and protect the land forever. As non-profit organizations , land trusts rely on donations, grants and public land acquisition programs for operating expenses and for acquiring land and easements. Donors often provide monetary support, but it

5130-415: The land trust in America today is often called an "Illinois-type" land trust or "Illinois Land Trust". Land trusts have been actively used in Illinois for over a hundred years and in recent decades have begun to be used in other states. The declaration of a trust is through a "deed to trustee" . If the trust is filed as a public document, it removes all of the asset protection provided by the formation of

5220-468: The land trust. Robert Pless pioneered the use of the land trust that has been used by many firms throughout the United States since the early 1990s. Community land trusts trace their conceptual history to England’s Garden Cities, India's Gramdan Movement , and Israel’s cooperative agricultural settlements, the moshavim . As Robert Swann and his co-authors noted in The Community Land Trust: A New Model for Land Tenure in America (1972): "The ideas behind

5310-402: The land. Conservation easements offer great flexibility. An easement on property containing rare wildlife habitat might prohibit any development, for example, while an easement on a working farm might allow the addition of agricultural structures. An easement may apply to all or a portion of the property, and need not require public access. Each conservation easement is carefully crafted to meet

5400-444: The largest contiguous portion of the Qualla lies in Haywood , Swain , and Jackson counties and is centered on the community of Cherokee , which serves as the tribal capital of the EBCI. Smaller, non-contiguous parcels also lie in Graham and Cherokee counties, near the communities of Snowbird and Murphy , respectively. The tribe purchased this land in the 1870s, and it was subsequently placed under federal protective trust; it

5490-401: The law of England, including the Statute of Uses , was present in US law, the question arose whether a land trust would be valid. This question went to the Illinois Supreme Court . It ruled that if a land trust was set up with some minor duty on the trustee (such as to deed the property to the beneficiaries 20 years later), then the trust would not be considered passive and would be valid. Thus,

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5580-479: The legal basis for the forcible removal known as the Trail of Tears. Most of the settlements were established in the area around the western capital of Tahlontiskee (near present-day Gore, Oklahoma ). Within the Cherokee Nation, there were advocates for neutrality, a Union alliance, and a Confederate alliance. Two prominent Cherokee, John Ross and Stand Watie were slaveholders and shared some values with Southern plantation owners. Watie thought it best for

5670-405: The majority of the Cherokee people were removed from the land. This was when the main struggle for land at what became the Qualla Boundary began. The Qualla Boundary was first surveyed in 1876 by M. S. Temple under the auspices of the United States Land Office. These pieces were embodied in a map published as the Map of the Qualla Indian reserve . The Qualla Boundary is a land trust supervised by

5760-431: The mid-1950s, much of Disney 's five-part television series, Davy Crockett (starring Fess Parker ), was filmed here. Land trust Land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own and manage land, and sometimes waters. There are three common types of land trust, distinguished from one another by the ways in which they are legally structured and by the purposes for which they are organized and operated: In

5850-459: The mid-eighteenth century, the Natchez people were defeated by French colonists and dispersed from there. Many survivors had been sold (by the French) into slavery in the West Indies. Others took refuge with allied tribes, one of which was the Cherokee. Known as the Loyal Shawnee or Cherokee Shawnee, one band of Shawnee people relocated to Indian Territory with the Seneca people (Iroquois) in July 1831. The term "Loyal" came from their serving in

5940-480: The military or fulfill other obligations of land ownership. For example, an elder uncle would hold his nephew's land so he would not have to join the king's army. To end this, King Henry in 1536 passed the Statute of Uses . The statute declared that if one party held land "for the use of" or in trust for another ("beneficiary"), then legal title was vested in the beneficiary. Obviously, if the statute had been given literal effect, there would be no trust law. Shortly after

6030-538: The needs of the landowner while not jeopardizing the conservation values of the land. In between selling land or an easement to a land trust is an option called a bargain sale. A bargain sale is where a landowner sells a property interest to an organization for less than the market price. The amount of value between the market price and the actual sale price is considered a donation to the organization. There are other strategies to conserve land as well. In October 2002, Property and Environment Research Center published

6120-403: The other side of the country, the Trust for Public Land sponsored a small gathering in San Francisco of established and newly forming Western land trusts in February 1978. By 1980, more than 400 local and regional land trusts existed, most still in the North-east, three-fourths with no paid staff, and half with annual budgets under $ 50,000. The majority of land was protected by fee ownership, but

6210-511: The pact. In 2003, the tribe negotiated a land swap with the federal government; this involved the tribe buying 218 acres (88 ha) near Waterrock Knob then trading it for the Ravensford tract. In 2009, Cherokee Central Schools opened a $ 140 million school campus on the Ravensford tract. The tribal community functions like most municipalities, operating schools, law enforcement, and rescue services, in addition to their own hospital and gaming casino, known as Harrah's Cherokee . They have opened

6300-453: The protection and stewardship of natural areas or for the preservation of productive lands for food or fiber are most commonly called conservation land trusts, but may also be called ' land conservancies .  They have been in existence since 1891. However, conservation land trusts were not well known before the 1980s. Conservation communities are examples of such land trusts. The first conservation land trust The Trustees of Reservations

6390-517: The public for recreation in the form of hunting, hiking, camping, wildlife observation, watersports, or other responsible outdoor activities. This is often with the assistance of community groups or government programs. Some land is also used for sustainable agriculture or ranching , or for sustainable logging . While important, these goals can be seen as secondary to protection of the land from development. Many different strategies are used to provide this protection, including outright acquisition of

6480-424: The reservation if the freedmen chose to stay with the tribe, as the US had done for enslaved African Americans. The area was made part of the reconstruction of the former Confederate States overseen by military officers and governors appointed by the federal government. A 2020 study contrasted the successful distribution of free land to former slaves in the Cherokee Nation with the failure to give former slaves in

6570-590: The schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs allowed only English to be used. In 2004, the EBCI established the New Kituwah Academy , a private bilingual Cherokee-English language immersion school for Cherokee students in kindergarten through sixth grade, located in the Yellowhill community. In 1975 Western Carolina University opened its Cherokee Center in cooperation with the EBCI, which

6660-551: The servant of Elisha that the woman was the owner of these lands, the king returns all her property to her. From the fact that the king orders his eunuch to return to the woman all her property and the produce of her land from the time that she left ... Land trusts have been around at least since Roman times but their clearest history is from the time of King Henry VIII in England . At that time, people used land trusts to hide their ownership of land so they would not have to serve in

6750-572: The site. Indications of Cherokee influence found in and about Tahlequah. For example, street signs appear in both the Cherokee language—in the syllabary alphabet created by Sequoyah (ca. 1767–1843) —and in English. Designed by architect C. W. Goodlander in the 'late Italianate' style, the Cherokee National Capitol was constructed between 1867 and 1869. Originally, it housed the nation's court as well as other offices. In 1961,

6840-438: The southern Appalachia region. Various leaders were periodically appointed (by mutual consent of the towns) to represent the towns or bands to French, British and, later, United States authorities as was needed. The Cherokee knew this leader as "First Beloved Man" —or Uku. The English had translated this as " chief ". The chief's function was to serve as focal point for negotiations with the encroaching Europeans. Hanging Maw

6930-505: The statute was enacted, however, English courts declared that the statute only applied if the trust was passive, that is, the trustee didn't do anything but hold the land. In late 19th-century Chicago , some people figured out that land trusts would be good for buying property for investors to build skyscrapers on, and city aldermen figured they would be a good way to hide their ownership in land since they were forbidden to vote on city building projects when they owned land nearby. Because

7020-562: The treaties and forcibly free up title to the lands desired by the states. At this time, one-third of the remaining Native Americans left voluntarily, especially because the act was being enforced by use of government troops and the Georgia militia. Although The Treaty of New Echota was not approved by the Cherokee National Council nor signed by Principal Chief John Ross, it was amended and ratified in March 1836, and became

7110-824: The tribal council; except for Cherokee County and Snowbird, which share two representatives to the tribal council. Cherokee, a census-designated place , overlaps most of Painttown and Yellowhill, with a small portion also in Wolftown. From 1890 to 1954, the U.S. Indian Service (later renamed the Bureau of Indian Affairs) operated the Cherokee Boarding Schools in Cherokee. It replaced these with elementary day schools, located closer to students' homes in Big Cove, Soco, Birdtown, and Snowbird. In 1962 all elementary day schools were consolidated into Central Elementary School in Cherokee. In 1975, Cherokee High School

7200-669: The tribe's land, require the state to build a regular highway through the Soco Valley ( US 19 ), and transfer two other parcels to the tribe, known as the Boundary Tree tract (north of US 441 , near the national park entrance) and Ravensford tract (east of the Oconaluftee River and Raven Fork confluence). Two years later, the U.S. Congress decided not to give the tribe the Ravensford tract as stated in

7290-429: The use of conservation easements was growing. Then influences converged: the geographic spread resulting in isolation of newer land trusts; recognition of the difficulty of influencing vital legislation; and the growing engagement of Kingsbury Browne in land conservation, leading to his desire to learn about land trusts across the country. A movement was about to be born. The number of land trusts steadily increased in

7380-475: Was close friends with some members of the tribe. The Cherokee valued and respected Thomas; he had studied law and was adopted into the tribe and named as successor by its hereditary chief. He is the only European American to have served as chief in their history. Thomas purchased lands around the Oconaluftee River for the tribe, the total area adding up to around 50,000 acres; the purchased lands are

7470-502: Was divided into nine districts [1] named Canadian, Cooweescoowee, Delaware, Flint, Goingsnake, Illinois, Saline, Sequoyah, and Tahlequah (capital). Founded in 1838, Tahlequah was developed as the new capital of a united Cherokee Nation. It was named after the historic Great Tellico , an important Cherokee town and cultural center in present-day Tennessee that was one of the largest Cherokee towns ever established. The mostly European-American settlement of Tellico Plains later developed at

7560-569: Was done by women.) Women were instructed in weaving. Eventually, blacksmiths, gristmills and cotton plantations (along with slave labor) were established. Succeeding Little Turkey as Principal Chief were Black Fox (1801–1811) and Pathkiller (1811–1827), both former warriors of Dragging Canoe. "The separation", a phrase which the Cherokee used to describe the period after 1776, when the Chickamauga had left other bands that were in close proximity to Anglo-American settlements, officially ended at

7650-528: Was founded in 1891. In 1976, Ben Emory, new director of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, had begun to call on Boston lawyer Kingsbury Browne for advice on federal tax issues related to conservation easements. Emory recruited a handful of other land trusts as clients for Browne’s periodic tax letters, and a small communications network of land trusts evolved. When Congress considered new legislation relating to tax deductibility of easements,

7740-483: Was opened with grades seven through twelve. In 1990 Cherokee Central Schools became a tribally operated school district, under a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with students assigned from Big Cove, Birdtown, Painttown, Wolftown, and Yellowhill communities. In 1996, the school district established the Kituwah curriculum for kindergarten through sixth grade, which incorporates the Cherokee language . Prior to this,

7830-547: Was protected by conservation easement in 2003. Although it does not include national or international land trusts in its Census, the LTA estimates another 25 million acres (100,000 km ) in the U.S. have been protected by those organizations. The largest amount of land protected by local and regional trusts is in the Northeast with 2.9 million acres (12,000 km ), while the fastest growing region between 1998 and 2003

7920-709: Was recognized as a chief by the United States government, but not by the majority of Cherokee peoples. At the end of the Cherokee–American wars (1794), Little Turkey was recognized as " Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation " by all the towns. At that time, Cherokee communities were on lands claimed by the states of North Carolina , South Carolina , Georgia , and the Overhill area, located in present-day eastern Tennessee . The break-away Chickamauga band (or Lower Cherokee), under War Chief Dragging Canoe ( Tsiyugunsini , 1738–1792), had retreated to and inhabited

8010-509: Was recognized as a sovereign government; because the majority of its leaders allied with the Confederacy, the United States required a new peace treaty after the American Civil War, which also provided for emancipation of Cherokee slaves. The territory was partially occupied by United States. In the late 19th century, Congress passed the Dawes Act , intended to promote assimilation and extinguish Indian governments, but it exempted

8100-477: Was the Pacific (consisting of California , Nevada , and Hawaii ), with protected land increasing 147% to 1.5 million acres (6,100 km ) in 2003. In the United States; approximately 230,000 square kilometres (89,000 sq mi) (as of 2008) of land are owned by the United States government and held in trust for Native American tribes and individuals . In Australia, Aboriginal land trusts are

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