108TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1409
AN ACT
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 2003’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:
(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 acres 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
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.
(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.
(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-
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-
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
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.
Passed the House of Representatives September 23,
2003.
Attest:
Clerk.