Raven helmet of K'alyaan in the Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka, circa 1906

• Main Author: Shaw, William T. (William Thomas), b. 1873
• Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Helmets; Tlingit Indians > Clothing & dress > Alaska; Tlingit Indians > Arts & crafts > Alaska; Ceremonial objects; Indian; The Beak; The Helmet; tlingit; Alaska
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/alaskawcanada/id/887

Carved war bonnet worn by K'alyaan (Katlean, Katlian), battle leader of the Kiks.adi clan of the Tlingit Indians. The Kiks.adi Tlingit, along with members of other clans at Sitka, defended their homeland against Russian colonization in a battle at Indian River in October of 1804. The helmet was brought to the Sheldon Jackson Museum in 1905 following the last Potlatch of 1904, by the man who also has the name K'alyaan and several other clan men. He handed the helmet to Gov. John G. Brady saying this was a symbol of "giving up the ol time". The piece of cloth in the bill is no longer there, but was described in the Minutes to the Alaska Society of Natural History and Ethnology in Nov. 1901 as a "strip of red flannel in the beak". PH Coll 587.8