What is "yellowknife"

Yellowknife (; 2011 population: 19,234) is the capital and only city, as well as the largest community in the Northwest Territories (NT or NWT), Canada. It is located on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, approximately 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 once known as the 'Copper Indians' or 'Yellowknife Indians' (now referred to locally as the Yellowknives Dene (First Nation)) who traded tools made from copper deposits near the Arctic Coast. The current population is ethnically mixed. 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 Sǫ̀mbak'è (Som-ba Kay) ("where the money is").

The Yellowknife settlement is considered to have been founded in 1934, 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 Yellowknife in 1991, this shift has begun to reverse.

The Yellowknife Administration district, was a political management jurisdiction representing Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The district was created by Federal legislation in 1939 to encompass lands within a 25-mile radius of the town centre. Its primary functions were to create a Trustee Council that would represent civic issues in the booming gold town of Yellowknife. The issues included liquor control, sanitation, land surveys, schools, and taxation. The Trustee Council was partly appointed and partly elected from a pool of local businessmen. This system continued until 1953 when the first fully elected Municipal Town Council was organized and Yellowknife civic affairs were no longer managed by the Federal government.

Category:Former Northwest Territories electoral districts

Yellowknife usually refers to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, a city in Canada.

It may also refer to:

• the Yellowknife River, a river in the Northwest Territories
• the Yellowknives, a tribe of North American indigenous people who gave their name to the city
• Yellowknife (Administrative district), was an appointed district representing Yellowknife
• HMCS Yellowknife, a Canadian Kingston-class maritime coastal defence vessel
• CFNA HQ Yellowknife, a Canadian Forces base located in the city of Yellowknife
• Yellowknife Catholic School Board, the school board responsible for Catholic education in Yellowknife
• Yellowknife Education District No. 1, the public school board

Yellowknife is a 2002 film by Canadian director Rodrigue Jean, his second long feature after Full Blast.