Cherokee Heritage Trails wind through the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia in the heart of Cherokee homelands that once encompassed more than 140,000 square miles. In this region, where Cherokee people have lived for thousands of years, places of myth and legend, village sites, memorials, museums, and other significant locations trace the Cherokee story. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has more than 13,000 members, many of whom live on or near the Qualla Boundary, tribal lands that include the town of Cherokee, North Carolina. Annual festivals and events at some trail sites bring together Cherokee storytellers, basket weavers, stone carvers, wood carvers, gospel singers, musicians, and other artists from the Eastern Band, alongside traditional foods, Cherokee stickball games, and the Cherokee language. The Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina, owned and operated by tribal members, serves as the main interpretive center and presents Cherokee heritage and experience through an award-winning interactive exhibit. Other interpretive centers include Junaluska Memorial and Museum in Robinsonville on the Snowbird Cherokee community and Junaluska; Scottish Tartans Museum in Franklin on Cherokee Middle Towns along the Little Tennessee River and Scots-Cherokee relationships; Cherokee County Historical Museum in Murphy on the Trail of Tears and the "leech place" of Cherokee lore; Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore on Sequoyah and the Overhill Cherokee towns; Red Clay State Historic Area on nineteenth-century Cherokee life and removal from eastern Tennessee; and New Echota State Historic Site near Calhoun on the nineteenth-century Cherokee renaissance and removal.