Another of the old notables among the East Cherokee was Tsunu'lahûñ'ski, corrupted by the whites to Junaluska, a great warrior, from whom the ridge west of Waynesville takes its name. In early life he was known as Gûl'`kala'ski. [417] On the outbreak of the Creek war in 1813 he raised a party of warriors to go down, as he boasted, "to exterminate the Creeks." Not meeting with complete success, he announced the result, according to the Cherokee custom, at the next dance after his return in a single word, detsinu'lahûñgû', "I tried, but could not," given out as a cue to the song leader, who at once took it as the burden of his song. Thenceforth the disappointed warrior was known as Tsunu'lahûñ'ski, "One who tries, but fails." He distinguished himself at the Horseshoe bend, where the action of the Cherokee decided the battle in favor of Jackson's army, and was often heard to say after the removal: "If I had known that Jackson would drive us from our homes, I would have killed him that day at the Horseshoe." He accompanied the exiles of 1838, but afterward returned to his old home; he was allowed to remain, and in recognition of his services the state legislature, by special act, in 1847 conferred upon him the right of citizenship and granted to him a tract of land in fee simple, but without power of alienation. [418] This reservation was in the Cheowa Indian settlement, near the present Robbinsville, in Graham county, where he died about the year 1858. His grave is still to be seen just outside of Robbinsville. As illustrative of his shrewdness it is told that he once tracked a little Indian girl to Charleston, South Carolina, where she had been carried by kidnappers and sold as a slave, and regained her freedom by proving, from expert microscopic examination, that her hair had none of the negro characteristics. [419] Christianity was introduced among the Kituhwa Cherokee shortly before the Removal through Worcester and Boudinot's translation of Matthew, first published at New Echota in 1829. In the absence of missionaries the book was read by the Indians from house to house. After the Removal a Methodist minister, Reverend Ulrich Keener, began to make visits for preaching at irregular intervals, and was followed several years later by Baptist workers. [420] In the fall of 1839 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs reported that the East Cherokee had recently expressed a desire to join their brethren in the West, but had been deterred from so doing by the unsettled condition of affairs in the Territory. He states that "they have a right to remain or to go," but that as the interests of others are involved in their decision they should decide without delay. [421]