Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Qualla Boundary: town of Cherokee

  • wcu_cherokee_traditions-624.jp2
  • This 1949 photograph by Vivienne Roberts was taken in downtown Cherokee, a town in the heart of the Qualla Boundary. The Boundary is made up of almost 100 square miles of tribal land owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. During the 1920s, road improvements made the North Carolina mountains more accessible and tourism became a significant force in the economy of Cherokee and the surrounding area. By the late 1940s, with the end of World War II, tourism once again became an important economic factor in western North Carolina. The increasing number of visitors provided Cherokee craftspeople a ready market for their traditional craft goods.