Gani Koe

At the eastern end of Lake Athabasca lies Gánį Kóé, known in French as Fond du Lac. This is Dene country, where fishing and hunting have long sustained people along the lake and the rivers of the northern forest. The eastern end of the lake offered good fishing, and barren-ground caribou came into the surrounding country during the winter.

Around the turn of the nineteenth century the North West Company established a trading post here to attract Chipewyan hunters. It was abandoned in 1804, but rivalry with the Hudson's Bay Company brought traders back to the eastern lake shore towards the end of the following decade. After the two companies joined in 1821, their eastern posts were abandoned and trade was again concentrated at Fort Chipewyan, at the other end of the lake.