"In Robbinsville, the Junaluska Museum and Gravesite serve as the center for Cherokee Heritage Trails.  At this small, remarkable museum created by members of the Snowbird community of Cherokees from the Eastern Band, you will find information on sites and events in this area.  The Junaluska Memorial and Museum also present information on the Cherokee leader Junaluska, a walking trail with medicine plants, exhibits of artifacts from this area more than 6,000 years old, and the story of the Trail of Tears in this area. 

The Junaluska Memorial and Museum honor this Cherokee leader who was held in high esteem by both Cherokees and whites.  Seven large granite markers erected around his grave tell the story of his life, 1776-1858, which was shaped by the events of the turbulent period leading up to and following Removal.  The Junaluska Museum, located just downhill, provides further information about his life.  There, exhibits of artifacts from the Cheoah Valley date back more than 6,000 years, and information on the Trail of Tears is presented.  Community members like Iva Rattler and Jim Bowman who helped to create the museum and who often volunteer here provide additional information on Junaluska and the Snowbird Cherokees.  Baskets, beadwork, silversmithing, and other crafts made by Cherokee people are sold here.  Recently, the museum created a 'Medicine Plants' walking trail that loops around the hill below the grave site, and the Friends of Junaluska are planning to expand their programming. 

Born in 1776 in the village of Echoe, near present-day Dillard, Georgia, Junaluska and his family kept moving as the borders of the Cherokee territory kept shrinking - first to land on the Cullasaja River and then near the Valley Towns. In 1811, Cherokee oral tradition records that he met with Tecumseh at Soco Gap and declined, for the Cherokees, Tecumseh's offer to join him and all other tribes in uniting to defeat the whites." 

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"Junaluska's contemporaries described him as tall and dignified, and say that he was a good speaker.  His name comes from the Cherokee language tsunalahvski - 'He tried and failed,' because he boasted that he would go and kill all the Creeks, and when he returned, having obviously failed, this was the name he took.  A courageous warrior and natural leader, Junaluska had three wives, having been widowed twice, and his descendants still live among the Eastern Band today.

"The Indian warrior who saved Andrew Jackson's life and made him a national hero lived to regret it.  His name was Junaluska, a Cherokee chief born near what is now Dillard, Georgia around 1776.  He is the unsung hero of the greatest Indian battle in history.  He made his name and his fame among his own people in the War of 1812 when the mighty tribe of Creek Indians allied themselves with the British against the United States.  With the opening of the Creek War, following the massacre at Fort Mims in Alabama, Junaluska recruited some 800 Cherokee warriors to go to the aid of Andrew Jackson and his Tennessee militia in an advance down the Coosa River against the Creek Red Sticks.  During the waning months of 1813 Jackson's force in northern Alabama had been so reduced by mutinies and expiration of service terms that Jackson was forced to rely more and more upon the Cherokees.  Jackson even employed them to garrison Fort Armstrong, on the upper Coosa, and protect his provision depot.  But with the coming of the new year, he received reinforcements from Tennessee, including more Cherokee, and was able to leave his camp on the Coosa and advance on the Creek towns on the Tallapoosa.  Relegating the Cherokee to duties in the rear, Jackson and his Tennessee militia moved like a scythe through the Creek towns.  Finally, they halted for a reconnaissance and camped on Emukfaw Creek, on the northern bank of the Tallapoosa, only a short distance from Horseshoe Bend.  There, on the morning of January 24, 1814, they were suddenly attacked by the Creeks.  The attack came with such fury that Jackson, his army badly crippled, was forced to retreat to Fort Strother. But by March, Jackson was in the saddle again.  This time he was determined to exterminate the Red Sticks. 

Word had been fetched by a scout that the Red Sticks were massed behind fortifications at Horseshoe Bend. Jackson, with an army of 2,000 men, including 500 Cherokee led by Junaluska, set out for the Bend, 70 miles away. The site of the imminent battle, which would make red heroes as well as white and would go down as the greatest Indian battle in history, was a place the Creeks called Tohopki.  There the Tallapoosa made a bend that enclosed a hundred acres in a narrow peninsula opening to the north.  On the lower side was an island in the river. Across the neck of the peninsula the Red Sticks had built a strong breastwork of logs.  Behind this breastwork were houses and behind these were dozens of canoes for use if retreat became necessary.  The fort was defended by thousands of warriors.  There also were 300 women and children. 

The battle, which became a massacre, opened at midmorning on March 27, 1814.  Two cannons opened fire, the balls swooshing through the air to sink into the soft logs of the barricades.  Two hours of heavy cannonading were to no avail.  The Cherokee had been detailed to cross the river at a ford three miles below the fort and surround the bend so that the Creeks could not escape in that direction.  They took position where the Creek fort was separated from them by water.  The battle raged throughout the morning.  There were dead and wounded on both sides.  Among the frontiersmen fighting for Jackson were Sam Houston and Davy Crockett, who would go on to write their names in the history books.  A few prisoners were brought in and, while officers were attempting to question them in the presence of Jackson, one broke loose, snatched up a knife and lunged for the general.  Junaluska, who had seen the move, stuck out a foot and tripped the Creek warrior, saving Jackson's life.  As the battle wore on it became more and more apparent that it was going to be a difficult job to dislodge the Red Sticks, firmly entrenched behind their breastwork of logs.  It was then that Junaluska conceived his brilliant plan.  Without notifying Jackson, he gathered a dozen Cherokee, sneaked to the river's edge behind the fort, plunged into the water and swam over to where the Creek canoes were moored.  Junaluska and his braves freed the canoes and maneuvered them to the opposite bank where other Cherokee warriors piled into them and, under cover of a steady fire from their own companions, returned to the opposite bank, thus breaching the Red Sticks defenses.  This diversion from the rear gave the Tennesseans opportunity to swarm over the breastworks.  Now it was hand to hand fighting.  Amid the smoke from their blazing homes the Red Sticks fell.  When more than half the Creeks lay dead, the rest turned and plunged into the river, only to find the banks on the opposite side lined with blazing guns and escape cut off in every direction. 

Of the 1,300 Creeks inside the stockade, including women and children, not more than 20 escaped. Of 300 prisoners only 3 were men.  The Red Stick defenders of Horseshoe Bend had been exterminated.  The result was decisive.  Two weeks later Billy Weatherford, the greatest of the Creek chiefs, surrendered to Jackson.  Thus an end came to the Creek War and freed Jackson to move on to New Orleans against the British.  For the first time in a century of war, the Cherokee were allied with the winner. And they saved the day for Andrew Jackson. 

When the battle of Horseshoe Bend was over, Jackson was reported to have told Junaluska:

'As long as the sun shines and the grass grows, there shall be friendship between us,
 and the feet of the Cherokee shall be toward the east.'