Opinion: State turns to Eastern Cherokees for casino revenues

From the town of Murphy in Western North Carolina’s Cherokee County, it’s 365 miles to the state capital in Raleigh. The last big state highway project here in this far mountain county took 22 years to get started.

That’s certainly not the case with the site preparations for the planned 2015 Harrah’s Valley River Casino and Hotel just east of this county-seat town that has a population of 1,601. This work is proceeding at an uncommon pace.

After Principal Chief Michell Hicks and his Eastern Band of Cherokee had settled in 2013 upon a location for the $109 million casino and hotel, things began to happen fast with the project’s transportation elements. It took the N.C. Department of Transportation only five months to let the contract for the bridge into the location, and only four more months after that to let the contract for the roadway from there to the edge of Indian trust land. There, on 85 acres the tribe will reign more or less sovereignly. It also will be meeting a rather severe monthly-payment schedule it’s agreed to with the state government.

Last week at the Qualla Boundary reservation near Murphy, I caught up with Principal Chief Hicks. I asked, is the site preparation near Murphy going fast enough for you? “It’s going pretty good, bureaucracy being what it is,” Hicks replied. “I like what I’m seeing so far.”