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A town in western North Carolina is returning land to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

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A town in western North Carolina is returning land to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians


An important cultural site is close to being returned to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians after a city council in North Carolina voted unanimously Monday to return the land.

The Noquisiyi Mound in Franklin, North Carolina, was part of a Cherokee mother town hundreds of years before the founding of the United States, and it is a place of deep spiritual significance to the Cherokee people. But for about 200 years it was either in the hands of private owners or the town.

“When you think about the importance of not just our history but those cultural and traditional areas where we practice all the things we believe in, they should be in the hands of the tribe they belong to,” said Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. “It’s a decision that we’re very thankful to the town of Franklin for understanding.”

Noquisiyi is the largest unexcavated mound in the Southeast, said Elaine Eisenbraun, executive director of Noquisiyi Intitative, the nonprofit that has managed the site since 2019. Eisenbraun, who worked alongside the town’s mayor for several years on the return, said the next step is for the tribal council to agree to take control, which will initiate the legal process of transferring the title.

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CHEROKEE CHIEF SIGNS ORDINANCE FOR FIRST OFFICIAL DEER SEASON ON TRIBAL LANDS

“It’s a big deal for Cherokees to get our piece of our ancestral territory back in general,” said Angelina Jumper, a citizen of the tribe and a Noquisiyi Initiative board member who spoke at Monday’s city council meeting. “But when you talk about a mound site like that, that has so much significance and is still standing as high as it was two or three hundred years ago when it was taken, that kind of just holds a level of gravity that I just have no words for.”

In the 1940s, the town of Franklin raised money to purchase the mound from a private owner. Hicks said the tribe started conversations with the town about transferring ownership in 2012, after a town employee sprayed herbicide on the mound, killing all the grass. In 2019, Franklin and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians created a nonprofit to oversee the site, which today it is situated between two roads and several buildings.

“Talking about Land Back, it’s part of a living people. It’s not like it’s a historical artifact,” said Stacey Guffey, Franklin’s mayor, referencing the global movement to return Indigenous homelands through ownership or co-stewardship. “It’s part of a living culture, and if we can’t honor that then we lose the character of who we are as mountain people.”

LUMBEE TRIBE OF NORTH CAROLINA GAINS LONG-SOUGHT FULL FEDERAL RECOGNITION

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Noquisiyi is part of a series of earthen mounds, many of which still exist, that were the heart of the Cherokee civilization. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians also owns the Cowee Mound a few miles away, and it is establishing a cultural corridor of important sites that stretches from Georgia to the tribe’s reservation, the Qualla Boundary.

Noquisiyi, which translates to “star place,” is an important religious site that has provided protection to generations of Cherokee people, said Jordan Oocumma, the groundskeeper of the mound. He said he is the first enrolled member of the tribe to caretake the mound since the forced removal.

“It’s also a place where when you need answers, or you want to know something, you can go there and you ask, and it’ll come to you,” he said. “It feels different from being anywhere else in the world when you’re out there.”

The mound will remain publicly accessible, and the tribe plans to open an interpretive center in a building it owns next to the site.



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2026 primary turnout report released for eastern NC counties; see your county’s numbers

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2026 primary turnout report released for eastern NC counties; see your county’s numbers


Here are the voter turnout numbers for the 2026 primary election, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Hyde County had the highest voter turnout, while Onslow County had the lowest turnout. Check out what the voter turnout in your county was below:

BERTIE COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

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31.85% (3,911 out of 12,280)

CARTERET COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

29.06% (16,543 out of 56,931)

CRAVEN COUNTY

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Ballots Cast:

18.63% (14,119 out of 75,778)

DUPLIN COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

21.93% (6,981 out of 31,832)

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EDGECOMBE COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

18.16% (6,428 out of 35,396)

GREENE COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

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19.70% (2,147 out of 10,900)

HYDE COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

37.27% (1,123 out of 3,013)

JONES COUNTY

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Ballots Cast:

25.91% (1,805 out of 6,966)

LENOIR COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

16.73% (6,251 out of 37,371)

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MARTIN COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

17.61% (2,858 out of 16,228)

ONSLOW COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

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11.44% (14,816 out of 129,537)

PAMLICO COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

24.03% (2,446 out of 10,180)

PITT COUNTY

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Ballots Cast:

15.71% (19,429 out of 123,705)

TYRRELL COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

30.49% (723 out of 2,371)

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WASHINGTON COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

28.66% (2,312 out of 8,067)

WAYNE COUNTY

Ballots Cast:

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21.49% (16,408 out of 76,358)



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Statewide tornado drill has NC schools and workplaces practicing safety

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Statewide tornado drill has NC schools and workplaces practicing safety


Wednesday, March 4, 2026 6:41PM

NC schools and businesses encouraged to practice tornado safety

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina schools and businesses took part in a statewide tornado drill Wednesday morning as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.

The National Weather Service led the drill at 9:30 a.m., broadcasting it on NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System. Schools, workplaces and households across the state were encouraged to join in.

The National Weather Service didn’t issue a follow up alert to mark the end of the drill. Instead, each school or business wrapped up once they felt they had practiced the procedures thoroughly.

Wednesday’s drill also replaced the regular weekly NOAA Weather Radio test.

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Make sure to download the ABC 11 Mobile App ABC11 North Carolina Apps for Connected TV, Mobile News, Echo

Copyright © 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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North Carolina Rep. Valerie Foushee holds narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam

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North Carolina Rep. Valerie Foushee holds narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam


Nida Allam in 2022; Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) in 2025.

Jonathan Drake/Reuters; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images


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Jonathan Drake/Reuters; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee holds a narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam in the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional district as ballots continue to be counted.

In a race seen as an early test of whether Democratic voters desire generational change within the party, Foushee holds a lead of just over 1,000 votes with 99% of results in so far, according to the Associated Press.

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Under state law, provisional votes will be counted in the coming days in a district that includes Durham and Chapel Hill. If the election results end up within a 1% margin, Allam could request a recount.

Successfully ousting an incumbent lawmaker is often extremely difficult and rare. However, there have been recent upsets in races as some voters are calling for new leaders and several sitting members of Congress face primary challengers this cycle.

Allam, a 32-year-old Durham County Commissioner, is running to the left of Foushee, 69, framing her candidacy as part of a broader rejection of longtime Democratic norms.

On the campaign trail, Allam ran on an anti-establishment message, pledging to be a stronger fighter than Foushee in Congress, both in standing up against President Trump’s agenda and when pushing for more ambitious policy.

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“North Carolina is a purple state that often gets labeled red, but we’re not a red state,” she told NPR in an interview last month, emphasizing the need to address affordability concerns. “We are a state of working-class folks who just want their elected officials to champion the issues that are impacting them.”

She drew a contrast with the congresswoman on immigration, voicing support for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Foushee has declined to go that far, advocating instead for ICE to be defunded and for broader reforms to the federal immigration system.

Allam also clashed with Foushee over U.S. policy towards Israel. As a vocal opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, Allam swore off campaign donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups, such as AIPAC, and repeatedly criticized Foushee for previously accepting such funds.

Though Foushee announced last year that she would not accept AIPAC donations this cycle, she and Allam continued to spar over the broader role of outside spending in the race.

Their matchup comes four years after the candidates first squared off in 2022, when Allam lost to Foushee in what became the most expensive primary in the state’s history, with outside groups spending more than $3.8 million.

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However, this year is poised to break that record. Outside groups have reported spending more than $4.4 million on the primary matchup, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

WUNC’s Colin Campbell contributed to this report.



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