Hottah Lake

Hottah Lake, the sixth largest lake in the Northwest Territories, lies in the hunting country of the Tłı̨chǫ, the Dene people whom fur traders called Dogrib. Their trading chiefs dealt with the posts at Old Fort Rae and Fort Resolution, and their community of Gamètì, or Rae Lakes, stands in the same country.

The Yellowknife people, a northwestern Chipewyan group, traded at Fort Providence on the Great Slave Lake, and their relations with the Tłı̨chǫ were often hostile. The North West Company closed Fort Providence in 1823, and Akaitcho, the Yellowknife leader, had to trade at Fort Resolution, where Chipewyan were already established. In 1825 Akaitcho made peace with the Tłı̨chǫ chief Edzo at Mesa Lake, ending a long period of warfare between the two peoples.