The supplier of a local drug network has been sentenced to 30 years in prison, announced William T. Stetzer, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, on Thursday, Nov. 4. Matthew Wondra, 34, of Murphy, was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release after he is released from prison.

The Big Cove gymnasium is officially open. Members of Tribal Council and Executive took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, Nov. 1 for the latest multi-million-dollar project that has been completed on the Qualla Boundary.

After discussing a report on Cherokee Central Schools’ (CCS) remote learning, the Board of Education voted to strike it as a learning option following Christmas break.

Patsy Everhart Ledford, Steve Youngdeer American Legion Post 143 Auxiliary president, has served the members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for years in various capacities, and now she is an honorary member of the Tribe. 

The EBCI Joint Information Center won the top award as the 2020-21 SOAR (Success in Operations, Accountability, and Reporting) Awards were given during a Tribal Council session on the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 3. 

Dogwood Health Trust recently awarded more than $1 million over three years to the Center for Native Health to further strengthen and expand The Medical Careers and Technology Pipeline (MedCaT) for Indigenous and rural Appalachian students. Started in 2010, MedCaT

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Police Commission held its monthly meeting on Monday, Oct. 25 and discussed advances in the justice system and a continuing need for manpower.

The joint efforts of the Cherokee Indian Police Department (CIPD) SWAT team, the CIPD Narcotics Division, Tribal ALE, and Tribal ALE K9 Agent Vader resulted in the arrests of two men – both with trafficking amounts of controlled substances – in the early morning hours of Friday, Oct. 22.