Ayahciyiniw Sakahikan

Lesser Slave Lake lies in the forested country of northern Alberta, more than 100 kilometres long, and drains eastward through the Lesser Slave River into the Athabasca River. Along the Athabasca system, Sekani, Shuswap, Kootenay, Salish, Stoney and Cree hunters fished and hunted the shores and river flats long before European colonization reached the region in the eighteenth century.

From about 1778 the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers, with the Methye Portage between them, formed a main fur-trade route running from the Mackenzie River toward the Great Lakes. The name Athabasca comes from a Woods Cree word meaning "where there are plants one after another", a reference to the scattered vegetation along its banks. Canoe brigades carried furs and trade goods along this system, and the waters of the lake flowed into the same river country.