Indigenous peoples were the first settlers around the lake after the retreat of glacial ice. Archaeological evidence has revealed several different periods of cultural history, including the
Northern Plano tradition (8,000 years before present),
Shield Archaic tradition (6,500 years),
Arctic small tool tradition (3,500 years), and the
Taltheilei Shale tradition (2,500 years before present). Each culture has left a distinct mark in the archaeological record based on type or size of
lithic tools. Great Slave Lake was put on European maps during the emergence of the
fur trade towards the northwest from
Hudson Bay in the mid 18th century. The name 'Great Slave' came from the English-language translation of the
Cree exonym,
Awokanek (
Slavey), which they called the Dene Tha. The Slavey people were
Dene tribes living on the lake's southern shores at that time. As the French explorers dealt directly with the Cree traders, the large lake was referred to as "Grand lac des Esclaves" which was eventually translated into English as "Great Slave Lake". In the 1930s,
gold was discovered on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake. This discovery led to the establishment of Yellowknife, which would become the
capital of the NWT. In 1960, an all-season highway was built around the west side of the lake; the highway was originally an extension of the
Mackenzie Highway, but became known as
Yellowknife Highway or Highway 3. On 24 January 1978, a
Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite named
Kosmos 954, which contained an onboard
nuclear reactor, fell from orbit and disintegrated. Pieces of the nuclear core fell in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake. Some of the nuclear debris was recovered by a joint
Canadian Armed Forces,
United States Armed Forces, and members of the U.S.
Nuclear Emergency Support Team in an operation called Operation Morning Light.
Suggested renaming In the late 2010s, many placenames within the Northwest Territories were restored to their indigenous names. It has been suggestedparticularly because of the mention of slaverythat the lake be renamed as well. "Great Slave Lake is actually a very terrible name, unless you're a proponent of slavery," says Dëneze Nakehk'o, a Northwest Territories educator and founding member of
First Nations organization Dene Nahjo. "It's a beautiful place. It's majestic; it's huge. And I don't really think the current name on the map is fitting for that place." He has suggested Tu Nedhé, the
Dene Soline name for the lake, as an alternative. Tucho, the
Dehcho Dene term for the lake, has also been suggested. ==Geography and natural history==