article_snippet.sent: Russian expansion: Russian merchant Grigory Shelikhov founded a fur trading settlement on Kodiak Island in 1784.
article_snippet.sent: Business on the Alaska frontier:
article_snippet.sent: Above, a 1794 drawing of the Russian fur trading post in Kodiak, Alaska .
article_snippet.sent: Tsarina: Russia's Catherine the Great encouraged the expansion of Tsarina: Russia's Catherine the Great empire to Alaska for fur trading .
article_snippet.sent: Above, a map shows where Russian traders set up fur trading business in Alaska, and Russian traders possible farming settlement near Molalla Oregon .
article_snippet.sent: By 8,000 BC there were settlements throughout Alaska.