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Bring Cherokee History Home

Preserve the Past. Empower the Future.

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What We’re Building Towards

We are restoring these historical structures and transforming them into a vibrant, living museum. With your help, our center will feature:

  • Historical exhibits: Documents, pottery, tools, and artifacts of Cherokee daily life

  • A theater: Videos and oral histories told in the voices of Cherokee descendants

  • Living culture: Storytelling, music, drumming, and dance to keep our traditions alive

  • Outdoor educational spaces: Gardens, homes, and living villages that show how our ancestors lived and thrived

  • Exhibits on gold mining: The truth about the gold rush and its devastating impact on our people

  • Student tours: Educational field trips that teach the next generation the full, unfiltered history of this land

“We are not just a page in history,
we are still here. And we remember!”

Image by Jon Sailer
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Why We Need Your Help

The Cherokee were removed. But their story does not have to be.
We are raising $1.2 million to purchase and restore this historic land and build a permanent, sacred space for our people’s legacy.

Your donation—big or small will helps us:​​

  • Secure 2.8 acres of land along Georgia Highway 400

  • Restore the historic structures that witnessed Cherokee removal

  • Build immersive, educational exhibits and cultural displays

  • Protect the memory that Georgia once tried to erase

This is about more than a museum. This is about justice. Truth. Healing.

Our Story

In the quiet hills of Dahlonega, Georgia, there’s a place where the earth still remembers.

 

It remembers the footsteps of our Cherokee ancestors. It remembers the stories, the language, the tears, the resilience and now, it calls to us to remember too.

 

We are the descendants of those who stayed behind. Those who endured the heartbreak of separation, who held on to culture in silence, and whose strength has carried us here, generations later. Today, we have the chance to honor them, not in memory alone, but in presence.

 

We are creating the Cherokee Heritage Center: a home where our history will be seen, heard, and felt. A place where our story can live again, not just in textbooks, but in every heart that visits.

 

On this sacred 2.8-acre land stands an old general store, still intact from the time of the Cherokee Removal. With your help, we will lovingly restore it. Next to it, an old house will become our first exhibit wing, eventually forming the hallways of a full-scale museum.

Inside, we’ll showcase:

 

  • Cherokee pottery, tools, and documents

  • A theater room for films and oral histories

  • Exhibits on New Echota, the Cherokee capital, and the writing of our Constitution

  • The untold story of the Georgia Cherokee, those who were never removed, but who quietly resisted, survived, and rebuilt

  • Music, tradition, and storytelling: bringing voices of the past to life through drumming, songs, and spoken word passed down through generations

 

Outside, we dream of a living village, where visitors can walk through replicas of Cherokee homes, see crops we once grew, and experience the lifeways of our people. We’ll also share the gold mining history that forever changed this land and the miners—Indigenous and immigrant—who toiled here.

 

And for the children, our future, we will open our doors to schools across the region, welcoming them into a space where Cherokee history is not just taught, but felt.

 

We are right off Georgia Highway 400, easy to find, but impossible to forget.

The Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee

The Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee is the true remnant of the Cherokee Nation, which has existed in the Appalachians since time immemorial.

 

The original Cherokee Constitution was written here; Sequoyah invented the written syllabary for the Cherokee language here.  The first Cherokee newspaper, The Phoenix, was printed here.

 

Principal Chief, John Ross and Judge John Martin were both from Georgia.  They represented the Cherokee Nation before the United States Supreme Court in 1830 & 1831; Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation, (which was theirs through Right of Treaty with the United States Government);

 

President Andrew Jackson and the State of Georgia ignored their ruling and forced the Cherokee to accept Georgia Citizenship or be removed to Oklahoma Territory.  

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The Gold Rush & The Fall of The Cherokee Nation.

In 1809 the State of Georgia made a deal with the United States.

 

The State of Georgia once encompassed the territory that is now the State of Alabama and Mississippi.  The Federal Government wanted the land for future States.  The State of Georgia agreed to relinquish the Territory in return for the Federal Government to rid ALL of Georgia of the Native Americans within its boundaries.

 

Time rocked on, and very little progress was made toward this goal.  However, in the late 1820’s Gold was found in Lumpkin County in the County seat of Auraria.

 

(Today Dahlonega is the County seat about ten miles away). 

The True Story of the Trail of Tears

In 1838, more than 16,000 Cherokee were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Southeast after the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

 

Forced to travel nearly 1,000 miles to Oklahoma by foot, wagon, and boat, they faced hunger, disease, and bitter cold. Over 4,000 died along the way.

 

This tragic journey became known as the Trail of Tears. Yet, through sorrow and loss, the Cherokee spirit endured, some escaped to the mountains of North Carolina, forming what is now the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

 

Their story is one of immense pain, but also of survival, strength, and resilience.

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About Our Council

Cherokee of Georgia received state recognition on March 1, 1988 and has 369 members.


The Tribal Council is incorporated and has held 501(c)(3) nonprofit status since 1989 for their mission of maintaining a traditional Cherokee community, while preserving and sharing their culture and history.

 

The Tribal Grounds of 18.5 acres are located in St. George, Georgia. One of only a few in the country, the traditional seven-sided Council House is actively used for tribal functions. The Tribal Grounds and permanent facilities are ADA accessible and include a museum with cultural displays, dance arena, and stomp arbor. Cherokee of Georgia has hosted inter-tribal pow wows in St. George since 1980.

 

These are open to the public with free admission. Throughout the year scouting and other groups visit the Tribal Grounds for campouts, field trips, and tours. Cultural presentations with displays are also held at local libraries, schools, activity centers, and events.

 

In times of crisis Cherokee of Georgia has responded, delivering hurricane supplies and housing firefighters on the Tribal Grounds.

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