Simon Montelongo, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and a lead processor at the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. farm in Tsisqwohi (Birdtown), demonstrates a machine that makes vapes using cannabis products. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather photos)
By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
CHEROKEE, N.C. – On an overcast and chilly late winter morning, Simon Montelongo works in a room, clean as a laboratory, with fellow employees processing cannabis in various products. Montelongo, a lead processor at the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. farm, is one of over 225 employees with the company which continues to grow and expand.
The Great Smoky Cannabis Co., located in Cherokee, N.C., opened to the general public for sales of adult-use cannabis on Sept. 7, 2024. The dispensary is operated by Qualla Enterprises, LLC, an entity of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), which also operates a cannabis farm in Tsisqwohi (Birdtown) which supplies the dispensary.
Jack Wachacha, an EBCI tribal member, packages pre-rolls. On average, the facility is producing over 13,000 pre-rolls daily.
The Sept. 7 event was the third and final stage of opening for the dispensary. Sales of adult-use cannabis for EBCI tribal members as well as members of other federally recognized tribes opened on July 4, 2024, and medical cannabis sales opened on April 20, 2024.
Numerous cannabis products are sold at the dispensary from edibles to vapes to plant flowers.
Montelongo, an EBCI tribal member, leads a crew that works on producing some of these products. “With the guidance that I had, I was able to learn homogenizing the terps, glass and plastic hardware, and how we’re doing it to the standard of cleanliness. The standard of how our Cannabis Control Board wants the products produced. Everything that I’ve been trained on, I’ve seen it was able to be reciprocated to my entire team.
To say that I’ve only been here for a month and I can operate most of this is a testament to the training.”
Like his fellow employees, Montelongo is proud to be working at a business that now represents a little more than 90 percent of EBCI tribal families.
“I actually feel like I’m working towards the investment of our tribe and our future. This is something that I want to see thriving in the next 25 years so well that it employs the majority of our enrolled members. It’s been an outlet that I’ve seen a lot of people in recovery come find their safe refuge of work. Some people love this job so much they don’t see themselves working anywhere else. I see myself, as a community member, working here as a big part of this big, awesome machine.”
Isaiah Armachain, an EBCI tribal member, works with cannabis diamonds, a high-quality cannabis isolate.
He added, “I feel like I’m an integral piece of what is being produced here every day and that my community gets to see it, tourists get to see it, everyone from the surrounding states get to come through and try the products we’re producing. It’s awesome. It’s amazing.”
The company is expanding – up from 93 employees when it opened the dispensary for medical cannabis on April 20, 2024, to over 225.
Forrest Parker, Qualla Enterprises, LLC general manager and an EBCI tribal member, said, “Through belief in themselves and a sense of pride in helping their community provide medicine and revenue diversification, you’ve got a group of people that are hooked to a wagon that’s extremely challenging. They’re learning and they’re growing and they’re setting this thing up for the future.”
He is proud of the growth and said that it has come from determination from all of the employees. “Every week we push ourselves, we test ourselves. We go back to the drawing board and we are scheduled to go 7 days a week. Our target goal is by April to go 7 days a week. So, what we’re currently doing is really pushing ourselves and pushing the limits of our production systems for back stocks of inventory so that we are getting higher levels of confidence in our ability to backfill during high-demand times. So that’s really amazing.”
The EBCI tribal government is not releasing any financial figures anymore. So, Parker was unable to provide actual numbers, but he did note, “As we go through this thing financially, we hope that everyone sees how much impact that has downstream by setting this company up in a way where it’s operations and its margins out of the gate were on par with companies that were very established and very successful. That was done with Cherokee people, on Cherokee lands, for the benefit of the Eastern Band.”
He went on to say, “Our ability to supply innovative products at the highest level at the highest qualities dictates our success moving forward. That’s why it’s so critical that we reinvest into these systems and these infrastructure projects so that we can maximize this thing and leave no stone left unturned and capture as many customers as we possibly can right now so that we set the gold standard for what a regulated cannabis experience should feel like, so that you can make your own sovereign health choices with confidence. And, you can trust the Eastern Band and Great Smoky Cannabis Company to do that.”
Not only is the company expanding its workforce. It is also expanding its grow and production capabilities by adding a new 20,000 square foot indoor grow facility to the already 74 hoop houses operational on the farm site. Right now, the indoor facility is a building shell, but Parker plans to have it operational by June. Another hoop house based project has been designed and Qualla plans to break ground on this project early summer. This project would include supplemental lighting and expand the extremely cost-effective model that has already been proven.
Cannabis plants are shown growing inside a building at the farm. A new indoor grow facility being constructed now will increase production significantly.
Parker is also proud that the company is doing this expansion on its own. “We are currently reinvesting revenue generated through our sales into our own capital expansion infrastructure projects. We’re doing so with no assistance through bank loans.”
The farm site is not just a farm – it’s a fully-operational industry. “We have a lot of factory-level manufacturing elements in our business – assembly line, production technology, robotics, artificial intelligence…through technology we can empower people to be able to perform quickly, and efficiently, and effectively, and have something they can learn, dive into, have confidence in, and create value for the company and themselves on day one. That’s a big step in keeping the retention that we have, the extremely low turnover rate, and keeping everybody moving forward.”
From the plants growing in the hoop houses to the floor of the dispensary, nothing is done by chance. Parker noted, “We’re prioritizing and using the data and the information to drive our decision-making. We are agriculture, manufacturing, and retail. Nothing we’re doing is guessing – there’s science, there’s sales data, there’s demographics.”
Cec Smith, an EBCI tribal member, works with the packaging for several of the products including vapes and prerolls. “I think it’s neat because we have the Great Smoky brand which represents the company and this represents us as a people, the First Fire. I like it. It integrates the syllabary and the water spider.”
The company is currently producing around 13,000 pre-rolls daily.
Isaiah Armachain, an EBCI tribal member, has worked at the farm for two years and enjoys being a part of a team. “I just wanted to be able to see the process of it and be able to know that I did it, I made it.”
Parker said his employees are the company’s greatest asset. “This is not just a business. It is a cultural movement. It’s the progression of factual science in the real world and people getting access to safe, regulated medicine and it being ok. This is just a group of people that gets to take pride in helping provide that.”
