Rags to riches.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: NC TREND: Western Region

In a forest clearing in the twilight of a winter day, sweating young men, some bloodied, darted about in a millennia-old game of a-ne-jo-di, or "little brother of war." Less than 2 miles from the lacrosse-like contest played with deerskin balls, neon on the marquee of Harrah's Cherokee Casino boasted of the day's $420,000 in payouts.

That was 2004, only seven years after gambling had come to the Qualla Boundary, the 56,000-acre home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. For more than 160 years, descendants of those who escaped the 1838 forced removal of their ancestors, known as the Trail of Tears, had shown they could survive poverty and deprivation. With gaming came a new question: Could the Cherokee survive prosperity?

Today, the answer is yes for the tribe that totals 15,000 and inhabits an area once known as a tourist enclave of rubber tomahawks and fake chiefs in war bonnets. "The people who haven't been here since they were kids are amazed," laughs Erik Sneed, an Eastern Band member and its chief financial officer. "It's completely different than they remember."

In the 12 years since Business North Carolina detailed the initial impact of gaming on the tribe in a March 2004 cover story changes have accelerated. In the town of Cherokee, three hotel towers stand where there was one. The gambling floor has doubled in size, and a new 3,000-seat entertainment venue attracts Tony Bennett, Lady Antebellum and other stars.

"That has helped transform us from a somewhat typical, successful tribal casino operation to being a true resort," Sneed says. In September 2015, the Eastern Band opened a second, $110 million casino complex in Murphy in Cherokee County on the Tennessee border, that's expected to draw 1.5 million visitors a year.

The tribe owns the...