the region was the traditional home of the taku and inland tlingit people who by the 19th century settled around what was to become the gold rush town of atlin. other first nations such as the tahltan settled at telegraph creek and dease lake. the sekani lived along the finlay and parsnip rivers, while in the east the kaska people occupied the liard and dease rivers and eventually settled along mcdame creek. non native exploration of the district did not occur until the 1770s with the arrival of russian fur traders, who never traveled beyond the coastal areas, but relied on the tlingits to provide the pelts from the inland animals. with the construction of a fort at fort wrangell, the russian fur traders held a monopoly in the region until the 1830s when fort taku and fort stikine were both built on the stikine river by the hudson's bay company.