Dehcho

The Dehcho, or South Slavey, are a Dene people whose Athabaskan language is Na-Dene. Their own name, Dehcho Dene, means Mackenzie River People, and their homelands run along the Mackenzie and Liard and the western shore of Great Slave Lake.

The English name Slavey comes from Awokanak, the Cree term for northern neighbours they sometimes raided, and gave Great Slave Lake and the Slave River their European names. They lived in forest bands that hunted moose and caribou and travelled the waterways in birchbark canoes, gathering at the meeting of the Mackenzie and Liard.

Fur traders reached them early: Fort of the Forks opened there in 1803, and the Hudson's Bay Company rebuilt it as Fort Simpson in 1822, drawing them into the fur trade. Their northern relatives around Great Bear Lake form the separate Sahtu, or North Slavey.