Welcome (to the) Cherokee Indian Reservation

The Qualla Boundary (or The Qualla) is the territory where the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reside in western North Carolina.

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 not a reservation, but rather a "land trust" supervised by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. The land itself is just a fragment of the extensive historical homeland of the Cherokee, and was considered part of the original Cherokee Nation for a time. Many of the original Native American inhabitants had to purchase their own land back after it had been confiscated by the U.S. government.