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Great Slave Lake

Lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada

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These true- and false-color images of central Canada show the Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories (top) and Lake Athabasca to the southeast. Lake Athabasca straddles the border between Alber
Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC · Public domain

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The lake shares its name with the Dene, a group of First Nations peoples, who were called Slavey by their enemies, the Cree. Towns situated on the lake include (clockwise from east) Łutselk'e, Fort Resolution, Hay River, Hay River Reserve, Behchokǫ̀, Yellowknife, Ndilǫ, and Dettah. The only community in the East Arm is Łutselk'e, a hamlet of about 350 people, largely Chipewyan Indigenous peoples of the Dene Nation, and the abandoned winter camp and Hudson's Bay Company post Fort Reliance. Along the south shore, east of Hay River is the abandoned Pine Point Mine and the company town of Pine Point.

History

Indigenous peoples were the first settlers around the lake after the retreat of glacial ice. Archaeological evidence has revealed several different periods of cultural history, including the Northern Plano tradition (8,000 years before present), Shield Archaic tradition (6,500 years), Arctic small tool tradition (3,500 years), and the Taltheilei Shale tradition (2,500 years before present). Each culture has left a distinct mark in the archaeological record based on type or size of lithic tools.

Great Slave Lake was put on European maps during the emergence of the fur trade towards the northwest from Hudson Bay in the mid-18th century. The name refers to the Slavey people, who lived on the lake's southern shores at the time and were known to the Cree as the Awokanek ("slaves"). As the first French explorers dealt directly with Cree traders, they referred to the lake as "Grand lac des Esclaves", which was eventually translated into English as "Great Slave Lake".

In the 1930s, gold was discovered on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. This discovery led to the establishment of Yellowknife, which would become the capital of the NWT. In 1960, an all-season highway was built around the west side of the lake; the highway was originally an extension of the Mackenzie Highway, but became known as Yellowknife Highway or Highway 3.

On 24 January 1978, a Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite named Kosmos 954, which contained an onboard nuclear reactor, fell from orbit and disintegrated. Pieces of the nuclear core fell in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake. Some of the nuclear debris was recovered by a joint Canadian Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces, and members of the U.S. Nuclear Emergency Support Team in an operation called Operation Morning Light.

Suggested renaming

In the late 2010s, many placenames within the Northwest Territories were restored to their indigenous names. It has been suggested – particularly because of the mention of slavery – that the lake be renamed as well. "Great Slave Lake is actually a very terrible name, unless you're a proponent of slavery," says Dëneze Nakehk'o, a Northwest Territories educator and founding member of First Nations organization Dene Nahjo. "It's a beautiful place. It's majestic; it's huge. And I don't really think the current name on the map is fitting for that place." He has suggested Tu Nedhé, the Dene Soline name for the lake, as an alternative. Tucho, the Dehcho Dene term for the lake, has also been suggested.

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