Laurie Beckett, age 12, of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, for her question:

How was Great Slave Lake named?

Way back in 1770, an English explorer named Samual Hearne came upon a large and bountiful lake in northwestern Canada. Most likely he was the first foreigner that the American Indians of this region had ever met. In any case, the inhabitants and the visitor were interested in each other. It seems possible the local tribe called themselves by some name that sounded like our word slave. If they did, their name must have had a very different meaning.

On the other hand, the tribe may have had quite a different name for themselves. Hearne had noticed that slavery was very common throughout this region. Farther south, even the peaceful Klamath Tribe raided their neighbors to capture female slaves. Whatever his reason, Hearne called them the Slave Tribe. Since he respected their ownership of the territory, he also named their Slave River and the large, lovely Slave Lake that starts the mighty MacKenzie River on its way. So the Great Slave Lake may be a tribal name or an English name given because the Slave Tribe practiced slavery