District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch announced that two men in two separate cases in Macon County pleaded guilty recently to trafficking illegal drugs.

U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. sentenced Brandon Tyler Buchanan on Monday, April 14 to 30 years in prison for second degree murder

A Cherokee basketball legend with a gigantic smile and an amazing heart passed away recently. Mianna “Peaches” Squirrell passed away on Monday, April 7 at the age of 44.  Squirrell’s obit sums up her life. “Peaches didn’t just touch lives – she transformed them.” 

Tommy Cabe, left, forest resources specialist for EBCI Natural Resources, and Mary Thompson, a Cherokee basket-maker and potter who is also a part of the Elohi Dinigatiyi (Earth Keepers), start a fire using a traditional Cherokee fire pot in a river cane patch at Gibson Bottoms on the afternoon of April 9. (BROOKLYN BROWN/One Feather photos)

The Cherokee Police Commission met in the Ginger Lynn Welch Poke Salad Room on the afternoon of Thursday, April 10.  

On the afternoon of April 3 during regular session, Dinilawigi (Tribal Council), voted unanimously to pass Res. No. 4775: A resolution to authorize and request the development of a single EBCI database of information and cases concerning Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP), submitted by Ugvwiyuhi (Principal Chief) Michell Hicks.

Ernest D. Pheasant Sr., 47, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, April 3, 2025 for the 2013 murder of Marie Walkingstick Pheasant, announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Section 117 Article II of the Cherokee Code of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) deals with the powers and authority of Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) as the Tribe’s Legislative Branch of government.