It was founded in 1935, one year after gold (gold rush) was discovered in the area, and derived its name from the Yellowknife band of Athabascan Indians. During the early years of World War II, the demand for gold declined and the city's economy suffered. Since a second major gold discovery in 1945, large mines such as the Giant Yellowknife have been in operation. There are also reserves of diamonds in the surrounding region. Power is provided in part by a hydroelectric station on the nearby Snare River. The city is the largest community and the chief administrative, commercial, and educational centre in the territories. Yellowknife is linked by highway around the lake southward to Hay River and to cities in Alberta. Inc. city, 1970. Pop. (2006) 18,700.

a small Athabaskan-speaking North American Indian tribe who traditionally lived northeast of the Great Bear and Great Slave lakes in what is now the Northwest Territories, Can. The name Yellowknife derives from the group's use of yellow copper in making knives and other tools. In language and culture patterns the Yellowknife were almost identical to the Chipewyan, who were given to robbing and oppressing them. The virtual destruction of the tribe came in the late 18th and early 19th centuries at the hands of the Dogrib, however, who were retaliating for earlier raids and harassments.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 1,200 Yellowknife descendants.