Following the construction of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee, North Carolina, the ban on selling alcohol was hurting business. So the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians held a referendum in 2009 in which 70 percent of voters supported alcohol sales only at the casino.
The tribe did not have its own Alcoholic Beverage Commission at the time, so it bought alcohol through the Swain and Jackson County ABC boards, which profited from the sales. The tribe formed its own ABC board in 2011 and the tribal council passed a law making Cherokee comply with state laws regulating alcohol sales. However, the 2011 law was incomplete so in 2015 state legislators clarified that the Cherokee’s ABC board would have the same permitting authority as the state board. The law also required that the Cherokee ABC Board adhere to state alcohol standards and adopt any future changes to state ABC law.
Under those changes, there are certain circumstances where an alcohol permit may be issued without a referendum. Hotels and restaurants located within 1.5 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway may receive an alcohol permit, and one-time permits also may be granted for festivals and events. Breweries, wineries and distilleries are eligible but they can’t serve any alcohol produced on tribal land without a referendum.
Although the state law that allowed the special permits passed in 2015, the first permit was not granted until May 2017. Former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert had refused to allow any such permits to be issued without a referendum vote first taking place. He wrote in a November 2015 letter to Collette Coggins, then-ABC board chair, “I am aware of the recent changes in the N.C. Law on the mileage marker on the Blue Ridge Parkway. However, I do not recognize the authority of that law to override the power of a lawful vote of our people on the referendum question. The referendum question passed by our people explicitly authorized alcohol sales only upon the property of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.”
Lambert was impeached in May, and the new Principal Chief Richard Sneed started issuing the types of permits outlined in the state law. ABC Chairman Pepper Taylor said permits have been issued to three restaurants located near the Parkway and a permit was granted for the Cherokee Blue Ridge Run motorcycle rally in September.
Sneed recently defended these permits, and told council members that refusing to issue them would put the tribe out of compliance with state alcohol laws. In that case, he said, the state could decide to pull all alcohol permits, including the casino’s, which generates $20 million in revenue each year.
Still, council member Lisa Taylor wants those permits to end. She recently introduced a resolution asking for another referendum vote on the issue. “Numerous people in my community during my campaign approached me about this alcohol issue, and they felt like their voice was being silenced and they weren’t able to weigh in on the issue. So I decided to bring this resolution forward,” she said.
The resolution declares that “the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a Sovereign Nation capable of establishing its own laws, rules and regulations,” that “it is recognized that North Carolina’s law does not supersede our Tribe’s jurisdiction” and that the current state of affairs “excludes” tribal members from voting on “the spread of alcohol within our communities.” Therefore a special election referendum should be held to “answer the question of expanding alcohol sales to other business establishments outside of casino property on the Qualla Boundary.”
