Prior to European colonization, the Salmon River and its surrounding area was important to the Iroquois Confederacy as seasonal hunting and fishing grounds. Among their names for the river was "Heh-hah-wa-gah", meaning "where swim the sweet fish". Additional names included "A-han-ha-ge", "Ca-no-ha-ge" (meaning "a creek" or "river"), "Otihatangue" (meaning "a large clearing", referring to natural meadows near the river's mouth), and "Ga-hen-we-gah". The river also served as passage to interior hunting grounds, and was described in 1688 as "the place where the greater part of the Iroqouis embarked to go upon the trail of the beaver", in reference to their excursions into the Lesser Wilderness, now known as the Tug Hill.