While for many centuries, Alaska had been inhabited by various native tribes like the Iñupiat and the Inuit, it was taken over by Russia when fur traders sailed to the Aleutian Islands, establishing trading posts as they expanded their routes in the 1740s. The Russian settlers forced the Aleuts (the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands) to do the fur sourcing work for them while the settlers would do the trading and essentially enslaved them. In the early years of her reign Catherine the Great, urged those there to treat the Aleuts fairly. Alas the Alaskan colony wasn't very profitable and when it came to selling it, Britain was not interested as they had enough coastline with their dominion Canada (which would become a country in 1867) so Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867 for $7.2 million. On 3rd January 1959, Alaska became the 49th US state.