Yellowknife

Yellowknife
Sǫǫ̀mbak'è (Tlicho)
City of Yellowknife
From top left: Downtown Yellowknife, Great Slave Lake from Old Town, Aurora borealis over Yellowknife, houseboats on Yellowknife Bay in winter
Flag of Yellowknife
Nicknames: 
Motto: 
"Multum In Parvo"
Yellowknife is located in Northwest Territories
Yellowknife
Yellowknife
Location in the Northwest Territories
Yellowknife is located in Canada
Yellowknife
Yellowknife
Location in Canada
Coordinates: 62°27′13″N 114°22′12″W / 62.45361°N 114.37000°W / 62.45361; -114.37000[1]
CountryCanada
TerritoryNorthwest Territories
RegionNorth Slave Region
Constituencies
Census divisionRegion 6
Established1934[2]
Incorporation (city)1 January 1970
Government
 • TypeCity council
 • MayorRebecca Alty[3]
 • AdministratorSheila Bassi-Kellett
 • MPsMichael McLeod
 • MLAs
Area
 (land only)[4]
 • Total134.15 km2 (51.80 sq mi)
 • Land103.37 km2 (39.91 sq mi)
 • Water30.78 km2 (11.88 sq mi)
 • Population centre18.11 km2 (6.99 sq mi)
Elevation
206 m (676 ft)
Population
 (2021)[4][5]
20,340
 • Density196.8/km2 (510/sq mi)
 • Population Centre
19,673
 • Population Centre density1,086.3/km2 (2,814/sq mi)
DemonymYellowknifer
Time zoneUTC−07:00 (MST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−06:00 (MDT)
Forward sortation area
Area code867
– Living cost (2018)122.5A
Websiteyellowknife.ca
Sources:
  1. Department of Municipal and Community Affairs[6]
  2. Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre[7]
  3. Yellowknife profile at the Legislative Assembly[8]
  4. Canada Flight Supplement[9]
  5. ^A 2018 figure based on Edmonton = 100[10]

Yellowknife (/ˈjɛlnf/; Dogrib: Sǫǫ̀mbak’è)[11] is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about 400 km (250 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River.

Yellowknife and its surrounding water bodies were named after a local Dene tribe, who were known as the "Copper Indians" or "Yellowknife Indians", today incorporated as the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. They traded tools made from copper deposits near the Arctic Coast. Modern Yellowknives members can be found in city and in the adjoining, primarily Indigenous communities of Ndilǫ and Dettah.

The city's population, which is ethnically mixed, was 20,340 per the 2021 Canadian Census.[4][5] Of the eleven official languages of the Northwest Territories, five are spoken in significant numbers in Yellowknife: Dene Suline, Dogrib, South and North Slavey, English, and French. In the Dogrib language, the city is known as Sǫǫ̀mbak’è (Athapascan pronunciation: [sõːᵐbakʼe], "where the money is").[12][13]

The Yellowknife settlement is considered to have been founded in 1934,[2] after gold was found in the area, although commercial activity in the present-day waterfront area did not begin until 1936. Yellowknife quickly became the centre of economic activity in the NWT, and was named the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1967. As gold production began to wane, Yellowknife shifted from being a mining town to a centre of government services in the 1980s. However, with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991,[14] this shift began to reverse. In recent years, tourism, transportation, and communications have also emerged as significant Yellowknife industries.[15]

  1. ^ "Yellowknife". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada.
  2. ^ a b "About Yellowknife". www.yellowknife.ca. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference alty was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference 2021census was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population Data table Yellowknife Northwest Territories [Population centre]". 30 January 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  6. ^ "NWT Communities - Yellowknife". Government of the Northwest Territories: Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Northwest Territories Official Community Names and Pronunciation Guide". Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Yellowknife: Education, Culture and Employment, Government of the Northwest Territories. Archived from the original on 13 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  8. ^ "Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife profile". Assembly.gov.nt.ca. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference CFS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference comstat was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Saxon, Leslie; Siemens, Mary (1996). Tłįchǫ yatiì Enįhtł'è = a Dogrib dictionary. Dogrib Divisional Board of Education. Rae-Edzo, NWT: Dogrib Divisional Board of Education. ISBN 1-896790-00-3. OCLC 48982522.
  12. ^ "Yellowknife Visitors Guide" (PDF). Yellowknifer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 25 March 2009.
  13. ^ "Northwest Territories Official Community Names and Pronunciation Guide". Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Retrieved 1 January 2016.
  14. ^ "About Yellowknife". City of Yellowknife. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  15. ^ "About Yellowknife". www.yellowknife.ca. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2018.

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