Tucho

Great Slave Lake, 469 kilometres long, is the second largest lake in the Northwest Territories. It takes its name from the Slavey, the Dene people who lived on its southern shores; the Cree called them Awokanek, meaning "slaves". Around the southwestern shore, including Hay River and Fort Resolution, Dene hunters and fishers moved through the seasons between the lake and the forests beyond it.

In the winter of 1771 to 1772 the Hudson's Bay Company explorer Samuel Hearne travelled with a band of Chipewyan guides led by Matonabbee. In midwinter he became the first European to see and cross Great Slave Lake. He returned to Fort Prince of Wales on 30 June 1772, having walked some 8,000 kilometres.