Resolution No. 294 (2024) was taken up by Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) in its Thursday, Sept. 5 session and called for the addition of recognition for Mary Jane Letts as a visionary and collaborator with Susan Bradley Jones in redesigning the Oconaluftee Island Park. 

The Steve Youngdeer American Legion Post 143 members introduced the American Eagle Foundation (AEF) to the Dinilawigi (Tribal Council) during the regular session on Thursday, Sept. 5.

Ben Cordell, of Greenville, S.C., got in line at the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. at 1 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024 to be the first in line as the business was opening later that morning for adult-use (21+) sales to all for the first time.  The line of more than 1,000 people snaked through the parking lot. 

Bevier Hasbrouck Sleight III, 78, who was employed as Santa at Santa’s Land Fun Park & Zoo in Cherokee, was arrested by Cherokee Indian Police Department on Aug. 29 for 13 child abuse charges:

Over 300 people attended the “From Darkness Into Hope” Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention Event held on the Oconaluftee Island Park in Cherokee, N.C. on the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 4.

An application to restore the name of Clingman’s Dome, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, to its original Cherokee name, Kuwohi (mulberry place), will be heard by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) soon. 

A new National Park Service report shows that 13,297,647 visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2023 spent $2.2 billion in communities near the park. That spending supported 33,748 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $3.4 billion.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park fire officials and fire investigators have determined that the Flint Gap Fire was started by lightning from a recent summer storm.