Honorable Chief Junaluska, Maggie Valley
The memorial depicts Chief Junaluska from the waist up, in statue form, resting on a foundation made of rocks. He is wearing a bear claw necklace and headband, with his head looking upward to his proper left. Both hands rest on his hips. In appearance the bronze statue seems to transform or blend into the stone foundation below. The back half of the rectangular foundation rises into a low pyramid with the statue on top. The front half forms a low lectern inlaid with the bronze inscription plaque.
Images: Inscription
HONORABLE CHIEF JUNALUSKA / GUL’KALA’SKI – TSU – MU – LA – HUN – SKI / 1758 – 1858 / JUNALUSKA WAS A PEACE-LOVING CHIEF IN WESTERN NORTH / CAROLINA. WHEN LAKE JUNALUSKA WAS ESTABLISHED, THE NAME SELECTED / WAS THAT OF THE MOUNTAIN KEEPING VIGIL OVER THE LAKE – JUNALUSKA / MOUNTAIN – HONORING THE CHIEF. CHIEF JUNALUSKA, MEMBER OF THE / FAMOUS CHEROKEE REGIMENT, SERVED WITH DISTINCTION IN THE WAR OF / 1812 AND THE BATTLE OF HORSESHOE BEND, WAS CREDITED WITH SAVING / GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON’S LIFE, AND WAS RECOGNIZED FOR HIS / MILITARY SERVICE. HE WAS IN THE REMOVAL TO OKLAHOMA IN 1836 BUT / RETURNED TO N.C. HE WAS AWARDED FULL RIGHTS OF CITIZENSHIP AND A / GRANT OF LAND NEAR ROBBINSVILLE, WHERE HE IS BURIED. / PRESENTED BY NATIVE AMERICANS AND FRIENDS IN THE SOUTHEAST.
Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center
July 12, 1988
35.529880 , -82.971730
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"Chief Junaluska." Find a Grave, findagrave.com, (accessed December 15, 2015) Link
"George R. Stuart Auditorium--Lake Junaluska, North Carolina" in North Carolina Postcard Collection (P052), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill Link
"Honorable Chief Junaluska." The Historical Marker Database, HMdb.org, (accessed July 13, 2015) Link
Anderson, William L. and Wetmore, Ruth Y. Cherokee, Part V: The Trail of Tears and the Creation of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, NCpedia.org, (accessed April 16, 2016) Link
Denson, Andrew. “Reframing the Cherokee Dead: Removal-Era Cherokee Graves and the Changing Landscape of Southern Memory,” in Death and the Southern South, (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2014), Chapter 11
McCulloch, Maude. Junaluska, (Waynesville, N.C.: M. McCulloch, 1916), (accessed December 15, 2015) Link
McKinney, Gordon B. "Junaluska," NCpedia.org, (accessed February 16, 2017) Link
North Carolina Historical Commission. "The Biennial Report of the North Carolina Historical Commission (Edwards & Broughten, North Carolina, 1910) Link
“Paul Van Zandt,” redspringsart.com, (accessed December 4, 2015) Link
“SEJ Heritage Center,” Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, http://www.lakejunaluska.com/, (accessed December 15, 2015) Link
“Statue of Junaluska, Savior of Andrew Jackson,” RoadsideAmerica.com, (accessed December 15, 2015) Link
Yes
Bronze, stone
$6,500
Junaluska (1779[?]–20 Nov. 1858) was a Cherokee warrior and hero of Andrew Jackson's victory over the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend in 1814.
In 1838 Junaluska joined most of the other Cherokees in the removal to Oklahoma, infamously remembered as the “Trail of
Tears.”. Traditional accounts maintain that during the forced move Junaluska's wife and children died due to the difficulty of the trip. The same accounts assert that Junaluska expressed deep resentment about Andrew Jackson's support for the removal process.
The memorial marking the grave of the Cherokee Indian leader Junaluska and the Junaluska Museum are located in Robbinsville, NC.
The statue stands on the north shore of Lake Junaluska, in front of the George R. Stuart Auditorium. It is located on the south side of Chapel Drive just east of where it splits from N. Lakeshore Drive, across the street from the Terrace Hotel.
The memorial stands on a paved area, off the side walk along Chapel Drive.
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