The Qualla Boundary is not a reservation but a nation within a nation. The town of about 2,200 people is the center of the Qualla Boundary, created in the 1870s when the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians purchased more than 75,000 acres of land, mostly in Swain and Jackson counties in Western North Carolina. Decades of change have transformed Cherokee, North Carolina, from a tourist spot marked by shops with live bears in parking lot cages to a town that is dominated by a large casino and resort.
