I 
108TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1409
To provide for a Federal land exchange for the environmental, educational, 
and cultural benefit of the American public and the Eastern Band 
of Cherokee Indians, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 20, 2003
Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina (for himself, Mr. JONES of North Carolina, 
Mr. KILDEE, and Mr. CARSON of Oklahoma) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Resources 
A BILL 
To provide for a Federal land exchange for the environ-
mental, educational, and cultural benefit of the American 
public and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and 
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Eastern Band of Cher-
okee Indians Land Exchange Act of 2002’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
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(1) Since time immemorial, the ancestors of the 
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have lived in the 
Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The 
Eastern Band’s ancestral homeland includes sub-
stantial parts of seven eastern States and the land 
that now constitutes the Great Smoky Mountains 
National Park. 
(2) The Eastern Band has proposed a land ex-
change with the National Park Service and has 
spent over $1,500,000 for studies to thoroughly in-
ventory the environmental and cultural resources of 
the proposed land exchange parcels. 
(3) Such land exchange would benefit the 
American public by enabling the National Park 
Service to acquire the Yellow Face tract, comprising 
218 areas of land adjacent to the Blue Ridge Park-
way. 
(4) Acquisition of the Yellow Face tract for pro-
tection by the National Park Service would serve the 
public interest by preserving important views for 
Blue Ridge Parkway visitors, preserving habitat for 
endangered species and threatened species including 
the northern flying squirrel and the rock gnome li-
chen, preserving valuable high altitude wetland
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seeps, and preserving the property from rapidly ad-
vancing residential development. 
(5) The proposed land exchange would also ben-
efit the Eastern Band by allowing it to acquire the 
Ravensford tract, comprising 143 acres adjacent to 
the Tribe’s trust territory in Cherokee, North Caro-
lina, and currently within the Great Smoky Moun-
tains National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway. The 
Ravensford tract is part of the Tribe’s ancestral 
homeland as evidenced by archaeological finds dat-
ing back no less than 6,000 years. 
(6) The Eastern Band has a critical need to re-
place the current Cherokee Elementary School, 
which was built by the Department of the Interior 
over 40 years ago with a capacity of 480 students. 
The school now hosts 794 students in dilapidated 
buildings and mobile classrooms at a dangerous 
highway intersection in downtown Cherokee, North 
Carolina. 
(7) The Eastern Band ultimately intends to 
build a new three-school campus to serve as an envi-
ronmental, cultural, and educational ‘‘village,’’ where 
Cherokee language and culture can be taught along-
side the standard curriculum.
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(8) The land exchange and construction of this 
educational village will benefit the American public 
by preserving Cherokee traditions and fostering a vi-
brant, modern, and well-educated Indian nation. 
(9) The land exchange will also reunify tribal 
reservation lands now separated between the Big 
Cove Community and the balance of the Qualla 
Boundary, reestablishing the territorial integrity of 
the Eastern Band. 
(10) The Ravensford tract contains no threat-
ened species or endangered species listed pursuant 
to the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The 218-
acre Yellow Face tract has a number of listed 
threatened species and endangered species and a 
higher appraised value than the 143-acre Ravensford 
tract. 
(11) The American public will benefit from the 
Eastern Band’s commitment to mitigate any impacts 
on natural and cultural resources on the Ravensford 
tract, by among other things reducing the requested 
acreage from 168 to 143 acres. 
(12) The Congress and the Department of the 
Interior have approved land exchanges in the past 
when the benefits to the public and requesting party 
are clear, as they are in this case.
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(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are the fol-
lowing: 
(1) To acquire the Yellow Face tract for protec-
tion by the National Park Service, in order to pre-
serve the Waterrock Knob area’s spectacular views, 
endangered species and high altitude wetland seeps 
from encroachment by housing development, for the 
benefit and enjoyment of the American public. 
(2) To transfer the Ravensford tract, to be held 
in trust by the United States for the benefit of the 
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, in order to pro-
vide for an education facility that promotes the cul-
tural integrity of the Eastern Band and to reunify 
two Cherokee communities that were historically 
contiguous, while mitigating any impacts on natural 
and cultural resources on the tract. 
(3) To promote cooperative activities and part-
nerships between the Eastern band and the National 
Park Service within the Eastern Band’s ancestral 
homelands. 
SEC. 3. LAND EXCHANGE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Interior 
(‘‘Secretary’’) shall exchange the Ravensford tract, cur-
rently in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and 
the Blue Ridge Parkway, for the Yellow Face tract adja-
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cent to the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center on the Blue 
Ridge Parkway.
(b) TREATMENT OF EXCHANGED LANDS.—Effective 
upon receipt by the Secretary of a deed or deeds satisfac-
tory to the Secretary for the lands comprising the Yellow 
Face tract (as described in subsection (c)) to the United 
States, all right, title, and interest of the United States 
in and to the Ravensford tract, (as described in subsection 
(d)), including all improvements and appurtenances, are 
declared to be held in trust by the United States for the 
benefit of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians as part 
of the Cherokee Indian Reservation. 
(c) YELLOW FACE TRACT.—The Yellow Face tract 
shall contain Parcels 88 and 89 of the Hornbuckle Tract, 
Yellow Face Section, Qualla Township, Jackson County, 
North Carolina, which consist altogether of approximately 
218 acres and are depicted as the ‘‘Yellow Face Tract’’ 
on the map entitled ‘‘Land Exchange Between the Na-
tional Park Service and the Eastern Band of Cherokee 
Indians,’’ numbered 133/80020A, and dated November 
2002. The map shall be on file and available for public 
inspection in the appropriate offices of the National Park 
Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Upon comple-
tion of the land exchange, the Secretary shall adjust the
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boundary of the Blue Ridge Parkway to include such lands 
and shall manage the lands as part of the parkway. 
(d) RAVENSFORD TRACT.—The lands declared by 
subsection (b) to be held in trust for the Eastern Band 
of Cherokee Indians shall consist of approximately 143 
acres depicted as the ‘‘Ravensford Tract’’ on the map 
identified in subsection (c). Upon completion of the land 
exchange, the Secretary shall adjust the boundaries of 
Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue 
Ridge Parkway to exclude such lands. 
(e) LEGAL DESCRIPTIONS.—Not later than 1 year 
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
the Interior shall file a legal description of the areas de-
scribed in subsections (c) and (d) with the Committee on 
Resources of the House of Representatives and the Com-
mittee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Energy 
and Natural Resources of the Senate. Such legal descrip-
tions shall have the same force and effect as if the infor-
mation contained in the description were included in those 
subsections except that the Secretary may correct clerical 
and typographical errors in such legal descriptions. The 
legal descriptions shall be on file and available for public 
inspection in the offices of the National Park Service and 
the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
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SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS. 
(a) 
GOVERNMENT-TO-GOVERNMENT
AGREE-
MENTS.—In order to fulfill the purposes of this Act and 
to establish cooperative partnerships for purposes of this 
Act the Director of the National Park Service and the 
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians shall enter into govern-
ment-to-government consultations and shall develop proto-
cols to review planned construction on the Ravensford 
tract. The Director of the National Park Service is author-
ized to enter into cooperative agreements with the Eastern 
Band for the purpose of providing training, management, 
protection, preservation, and interpretation of the natural 
and cultural resources on the Ravensford tract. 
(b) CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS.—Recognizing the 
mutual interests and responsibilities of the Eastern Band 
of Cherokee Indians and the National Park Service for 
the conservation and protection of the resources on the 
Ravensford tract, the National Park Service and the East-
ern Band shall develop mutually agreed upon standards 
for size, impact, and design of construction consistent with 
the purposes of this Act on the Ravensford tract. The 
standards shall be consistent with the Eastern Band’s 
need to develop educational facilities and support infra-
structure adequate for current and future generations and 
shall otherwise minimize or mitigate any adverse impacts 
on natural or cultural resources. The standards shall be
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based on recognized best practices for environmental sus-
tainability and shall be reviewed periodically and revised 
as necessary. Development of the tract shall be limited to 
a road and utility corridor, an educational campus, and 
the infrastructure necessary to support such development. 
No new structures shall be constructed on the part of the 
Ravensford tract depicted as the ‘‘No New Construction’’ 
area on the map referred to in Section 3(c), which is gen-
erally the area north of the point where Big Cove Road 
crosses the Raven Fork River. All development on the 
Ravensford tract shall be conducted in a manner con-
sistent with this section and such development standards. 
SEC. 5. GAMING PROHIBITION. 
Gaming as defined and regulated by the Indian Gam-
ing Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.) shall be pro-
hibited on the Ravensford tract.
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