Through the battle that followed, the war bonnet was everywhere to be seen in the centre of the most furious fighting. Only once did it go down, and then only for a moment, when the chief struggled to his feet; and as his young men saw the symbol of victory rising from the dust, the thrill of renewed hope that went through them impelled them forward in one splendid, simultaneous movement that won the day.
In 1804 Kath-le-an himself wore the hat when his people were besieged for many days by the Russians.
On this occasion the spell of the war bonnet was broken; and upon his utter defeat, Kath-le-an, feeling that it had lost its charm for good luck, buried the unfortunate symbol in the woods.
Many years afterward Kath-le-an exhumed the hat and presented it to the museum.
"We will hereafter dwell in peace with the white people," he said; "so my young men will never again need the war bonnet."
Kath-le-an has to this day kept his word. He is still alive, but is nearly ninety years old.
Interesting stories and myths are connected with a large number of the relics in the museum—to which the small admission fee of fifty cents is asked.
One of the early picturesque block-houses built by the Russians still stands in a good state of preservation on a slight eminence above the town, on the way to the old cemetery.
The story of the lowering of the Russian flag, and the hoisting of the American colors at Sitka, is fraught with significance to the superstitious.
The steamship John L. Stevens, carrying United States troops from San Francisco, arrived in Sitka Harbor on the morning of October 9, 1867. The gunboats Jamestown and Resaca had already arrived and were lying at anchor. The Ossipee did not enter the harbor until the morning of the eighteenth.