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After it was over he descended the long flight of steps leading from the Commandant's quarters and strode across the parade ground with the dignity becoming to the hereditary chief of the Chilkats, the proudest kwan of the Thlingits.
For some reason he crossed the part reserved for officers, was challenged by the sentry, and, not heeding, when he reached the stockade gate was kicked by the sentry stationed there. He was furious. "Me, Colcheka, Chief of the Chilkats, kicked!" He turned in a rage, seized the musket of the sentry, wrenched it from his hands, then carried it to his house in the Ranche.
The stolen property was hidden under the old hospital building and was discovered by some boys and nearly all was restored to the church. On New Year's Day, 1869, Colcheka, a noted chief of the Chilkats who was visiting Sitka, was entertained by General Davis at the castle on the hill. The liquid refreshments served to him by the General raised his spirits and his pride of race.
The Chilkats from the coast, indignant at the loss of their middle-man profits by the invasion of the interior, crossed the mountains, descended the river, and destroyed the post. It thus became customary to call a trading-post a "fort," and every little point where a store and a warehouse stood was so dignified. Hence Fort Reliance, Fort Hamlin, Fort Adams.
All the kwans, the Khootznoos, the Hoonahs, the Chilkats, the Auks, Stikines, Kakes and others, joined with the Sitkas in the hatred of the Russians. Parties going out from the fort at Sitka for hunting expeditions, for cutting of wood, for traveling to the Hot Springs, had to be on their guard and with arms at hand prepared to fight at a moment's notice.
They looked for those who could tell them of the doings of white men who landed on these shores nearly a century before, and for those who could point the way to boundary monuments wherever they were. Of necessity they must look among the aged ones of Chilkats for information.
Schwatka, in his recent exploration of the Yukon found this game among the Chilkats. It was called la-hell. Two bones were used. One was the king and one the queen. The simplicity of the game was modified by the introduction of similar articles in each hand, the question to be decided being in which hand one of them having a specified mark should be found.
The guard was turned out for his arrest and a skirmish ensued in which the guard was worsted and retreated to the barracks. The Sitkas were neutral. The Chilkats were too few in number to fight the troops, so next day Colcheka surrendered, was kept in the guardhouse for a few days and then released.
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