Black Lake

Black Lake, Tazen Tuwé in Chipewyan, lies in the boreal forest of northern Saskatchewan. The lake receives the Fond du Lac River at its northwest end and releases it toward Lake Athabasca, making the water part of the principal canoe corridor between the Churchill River country and the far north. Low shores, spruce forest and a short open-water season determined where travellers could camp and move.

Denesuline families used the lake and its surrounding forests for hunting, fishing and trapping, entering the uplands as caribou, moose and fur-bearing animals shifted with the seasons. The lake gave access to water routes but did not support settlement at every point on its shore. Winter travel over ice and snow connected people where canoes could not.

European fur traders reached the northern waterways during the eighteenth century and incorporated them into networks centred on the Athabasca and Churchill systems. Denesuline people guided canoes and supplied food, skins and local knowledge while retaining their own territories and kinship ties. The northwest shore became a regular stopping and trading place because the river outlet linked the lake directly to the far northern route. The lake's identity grew from that combination of forest, seasonal movement and the route to Lake Athabasca.