Community Action on the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina

Abstract

The Great Society programs of the Lyndon Johnson Administration allowed the Cherokee Boys Club an opportunity to expand their operation and realize true self-determination. The local consequences of federal legislation are explored to reveal that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina were able to maintain traditional socio-cultural institutions while leading the community toward self-sufficiency in a capacity similar to municipal governments. The Boys Farm Club was created in 1932, incorporated by the tribe in 1964, and since that time has experienced phenomenal growth. This study investigates the main reasons for the success and corresponding relationships between the Eastern Cherokees and federal, state, and local entities by offering reasons for the nations' success in assuming control of government programs and services that were once the domain of the Cherokee agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This view argues how the Boys Club navigated the ever-changing federal Indian policies to emerge as an inspiring example of self-determination.