'I feel a lot of people started coming out of the woodwork once we started getting bigger per capita payments.'Īt the heart of the conflict is the 60,000-square-foot Harrah's Cherokee Casino that seven years ago transformed the tribe's chronically depressed reservation into the only place in North Carolina where people can legally gamble. 'We're at a critical time in this tribe, and we need the resources here for revitalization efforts,' said Roseanna Belt, a tribe member who heads the Cherokee Center at nearby Western Carolina University. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians - a 13,000-member tribe rooted for centuries in what is now the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina - is considering using DNA tests to assess its many 'absentee' members and determine who will be allowed to control, and share in, the casino millions. After decades in poverty, a scramble for newfound casino riches has turned one of the nation's most storied tribes against itself in a battle over bloodlines and who can be considered a real Cherokee.
