Dodge from 1870 attributes the initial altercation in part to serving alcohol to natives, saying Colchika was inebriated at the time with whiskey. Chief Tom of the Kake tribe demanded compensation for the death, as is customary in Tlingit law, from General Davis, who refused. Failing to receive material compensation, the Kake sought retribution in lives. The Kake captured a party of four trappers on Admiralty Island: two white trappers (Ludwig Madger and William Walker) were put to death at Murder Cove, while two mixed race Tlingit-Russian guides were purposefully set free. While the army failed to recognize Tlingit law, others recognized the local customs. According to the post trader at Sitka, Frank K. Louthan, "The failure to promptly pay for a real or supposed injury is at once the signal for retaliation, "The Kakes very promptly sought the usual remedy, 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'". Destruction of villages and forts Upon hearing of the retribution killings, Davis instructed Lieutenant Commander Richard Worsam Meade of the to set sail to the Kake tribal lands, take a few chiefs as hostage until surrender of the accused responsible for the killing, and to burn the villages. The Saginaw departed on the 11th of February 1869. A Landing party from the Saginaw entered the small Fossil Bluffs Village, found it deserted, and the next day set it alight. The next day the Saginaw sailed for Hamilton Bay, the site of present-day Kake and at the time a large village named Town Where No One Sleeps. This site was bombarded prior to a landing party putting to shore and setting the village afire after finding it deserted. The next morning the Saginaw sailed for Security Bay to a village now known as Retaliation Point Village which was also deserted and put to the torch. Setting sail, the Saginaw found two deserted forts with stores and smokehouses which were also destroyed by fire. According to Kake oral history, recorded in a 1979 interview, one elderly woman stayed in Fossil Bluffs Village and was burned to death. Aftermath The loss of winter stores, canoes, and shelter led to several Kake deaths during the winter. The Kake did not rebuild the small villages destroyed. Some dispersed to other villages, while others remained in the vicinity of Kake, eventually rebuilding the present day Kake. Trade with Fort Sitka was reduced substantially in the