Gunter was born in October 1789 near present-day Guntersville, Alabama, the son of John Gunter, a white trader, and Catherine, a Cherokee woman. He died at his home northwest of Tahlequah on April 17, 1842, after a prolonged illness. He was only fifty-two years old and had lived in the new Cherokee Nation for just over three years. He was laid to rest in the family cemetery.

Heather Vanderzee traveled from Columbus, Ohio, to honor her fourth great-grandfather.

“He helped lead during a very painful turning point in the Cherokee Nation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to honor him today,” she said. “My great-grandmother was very proud of her Cherokee heritage, and she wrote lots of letters, so we always heard her stories, and I grew up reading them, and it caught on with my mother and I. It’s a passion of ours too.”