Today I met a native American man from the Qualla Boundary, which I never knew existed.

[Selatius]

4. Qualla Boundary rests upon land formerly belonging to the original Cherokee Nation in NC.

It's a fragment, one of several in North Carolina up in the foothills in the former homeland of the Cherokee. It's not considered a reservation but is legally considered a "land trust" and is under the supervision of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

As you head into Qualla Boundary, a plaque erected by the Dept. of the Interior reads:

The Cherokee domain once extended far beyond the distant mountains, but the white man, with broken treaties and fruitless promises, brought trouble to the Indians and caused their banishment to an Oklahoma reservation. A few escaped capture and fled into the Great Smokies, eventually forming the Eastern Band that now lives on the Qualla Reservation in the valley below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualla_Boundary