What’s in Our Name
Our people, the people of Acho Dene Koe, or our Indigenous government has been referred to by various names, with the most known being Liard or the Fort Liard Band, referencing the Hudson Bay Company fort situated in the centre of Acho Dene Koe territory.
The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest Company explored the territory in the 1770s and 1780s and established fur trade posts.
The Hudson’s Bay Company merged with the Northwest Company in 1821 and the Northwest Territories entered Confederation after Canada’s purchase of the Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory from the financially struggling Hudson’s Bay Company in 1870. These vast areas extended west to British Columbia and north to the Arctic Ocean. They included the land that would become Saskatchewan, Alberta, Yukon, and Nunavut, as well as the northern extents of Ontario and Québec.