Editing Kake, Alaska (section)

===After Alaska Purchase===
{{main|Kake War}}
In the February 1869 [[Kake War]] the {{USS|Saginaw|1859|6}} destroyed three deserted villages and two forts near present-day Kake. Prior to the conflict, two white trappers were killed by the Kake in retribution for the death of two Kake departing [[Sitka, Alaska|Sitka]]. Sitka was the site of a standoff between the Army and some [[Tlingit]]s who refused to surrender Chief Colchika, who was involved in an altercation in [[Castle Hill (Sitka, Alaska)|Fort Sitka]]. While no Kake died in the destruction of the villages, except perhaps for a single old woman, some died over the winter due to the loss of winter stores, canoes, and shelter led to the death.  The villages were not rebuilt, and their inhabitants dispersed to other villages or remained in the vicinity, eventually rebuilding the present day Kake.<ref name="Harring">[http://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1325&context=cl_pubs Harring, Sidney L. "The Incorporation of Alaskan Natives Under American Law: United States and Tlingit Sovereignty, 1867-1900." Ariz. L. Rev. 31 (1989): 279.]</ref><ref name="Jones">{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/5175559|title=&quot;Search For and Destroy&quot;: US Army Relations with Alaska's Tlingit Indians and the Kake War of 1869|first=Jones, Z.|last=R.|journal=Ethnohistory|volume=60|issue=1}}{{Dead link|date=February 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

On September 25, 2024, the U.S. Navy formally apologized to the people of Kake for the destruction of the village.<ref name="Juneau Empire">[https://www.juneauempire.com/news/a-long-time-coming-u-s-navy-apologizes-for-destroying-alaska-native-village-of-kake-in-1869/ Juneau Empire "A Long Time Coming"]</ref>

Kake is the site of a 128-foot totem pole, one of the world's largest, carved in 1967 for the [[Alaska Purchase]] centennial.