Mount Tabor Indian Community

The Mount Tabor Indian Community (also Texas Cherokees and Associate Bands of the Mount Tabor Indian Community) is a cultural heritage group located in Rusk County, Texas. There was a historical Mount Tabor Indian Community dating from the 19th century. The current organization established a nonprofit organization in Texas in 2015.

The modern community identifies as being of Cherokee descent as well as Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Muscogee descent. They are descended from a few Cherokee who had migrated to Texas prior to the Cherokee War of 1839 under Duwa'li, or The Bowl. Additionally, the main body of the original Cherokee community was made up of Old Settler and Treaty Party (Ridge Party) Cherokee from Indian Territory. Between 1847 and 1853 they were joined by the remnants of other southeast tribes, such as the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Muscogee/Creek.

These Cherokee from Indian Territory, both the Old Settler and Ridge Party groups, left the Cherokee Nation due to internal political conflicts resulting from their forced removal from the Nation's eastern homeland (that culminated in the Starr War). The Old Settlers and the Ridge Party sought a separation from the dominant Ross faction of the Cherokee Nation in order to seek peace for their families.

In 1845 United States President James Polk issued an order for these two groups to seek lands suitable to settle on in Texas. Following the establishment of the community some six miles south of present-day Kilgore, Texas, the Cherokee were soon joined by Yowani Choctaw, intermarried Chickasaw, and McIntosh Party Creek Indians.

Today the band is made up of those descendants that continue to reside there. The band's current headquarters is in Kilgore, Texas, with significant populations near New London, Overton, Arp, and Troup, Texas.