Soombak'e

On the north shore of Great Slave Lake, Yellowknife Bay opens into a country of lakes, woods and rocky ground. The Yellowknives Dene and their Tłı̨chǫ neighbours travelled and hunted in this region, while the bay’s fisheries supplied food to generations of Dene families. The English name recalls the copper blades used by the Yellowknives.

A trading post known as Fort Providence was established near the bay in the late eighteenth century. Dene hunters brought caribou meat to its traders, who sent some of the surplus to other posts on the lake. In 1820 the Yellowknives leader Akaitcho met John Franklin there and agreed to guide and provision his expedition north. When Franklin’s party returned starving the following year, Akaitcho and his hunters came to their aid.