Editing Kake, Alaska (section)

===Prior to Alaska Purchase===
The region of Kake has been inhabited by the [[Tlingit]] indigenous people for thousands of years.

The Tlingit of the Kake region gained a reputation among early European and American explorers of being strong and powerful. Some conflicts with early explorers have been documented by historians. Some scholars believe the first explorer to enter Tlingit lands was the Briton [[Francis Drake]], who traveled to the area near present-day Kake in 1579,<ref>{{cite book|last=Bawlf|first=R. Samuel|title=Sir Francis Drake's secret voyage to the Northwest coast of America, AD 1579|year=2001|publisher=Sir Francis Drake Publications|location=Salt Spring Island, B.C.}}</ref> although other scholars dispute this theory.<ref>{{cite news|last=Smith|first=Dinitia|date=9 August 2003|title=Drake's Secret Trip Up the West Coast|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/09/books/drake-s-secret-trip-up-the-west-coast.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=28 February 2020}}</ref>

In the early 19th century Kake was visited by American [[maritime fur trade]]rs seeking [[sea otter]] skins, such as the ship ''[[Atahualpa (ship)|Atahualpa]]'' in 1805 and ''Otter'' in 1811.<ref name="Malloy1998">{{cite book|last=Malloy|first=Mary|title="Boston Men" on the Northwest Coast: The American Maritime Fur Trade 1788-1844|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MxgSAQAAIAAJ|access-date=28 February 2020|year=1998|publisher=Limestone Press|isbn=978-1-895901-18-4|pages=187–188}}</ref> Kake was also visited by the Russian Golovin Expedition in 1818. Mikhail Tikhanov, an artist with the expedition, painted a watercolor of the Tlingit chief Kotlean.<ref name="Malloy1998"/>