Symbols of Northwest Territories
Encyclopedia
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
's territories
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
, and has established several territorial symbols.
Symbols
| Symbol | Image | Adopted | Remarks | |
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| Coat of arms Coat of arms A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth... |
Coat of arms of Northwest Territories Coat of arms of Northwest Territories The original coat of arms of the Northwest Territories was granted by a Royal Warrant of Queen Elizabeth II on 7 February 1957. The shield is also featured on the territorial flag... |
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February 7, 1957 | Granted by royal warrant Royal Warrant Royal warrants of appointment have been issued for centuries to those who supply goods or services to a royal court or certain royal personages. The warrant enables the supplier to advertise the fact that they supply to the royal family, so lending prestige to the supplier... by Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,... . |
| Flag Flag A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist... |
Flag of Northwest Territories Flag of Northwest Territories The current flag of the Northwest Territories, Canada, was adopted in 1969 by the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories.Historically there have been four flags used in the territory since it joined confederation.-Hudson's Bay Company flag:... |
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January 1969 | Adopted by the Council of the Northwest Territories, designed by Robert Bessant Robert Bessant Robert Bessant is a farmer from Manitoba, Canada.Robert grew up in Margaret, Manitoba.Robert is best known for designing the current Flag of Northwest Territories in a 1969 nationwide contest by the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories. He designed the flag while he was still in his... . |
| Shield of arms | Shield of arms of Northwest Territories | February 7, 1957 | Granted with other elements of the coat of arms | |
| The Seal | The Seal of the Northwest Territories | November 29, 1956 | The Seal of the Northwest Territories consists of the Coat of Arms of the NWT encircled by the words, "The Seal of the Northwest Territories." | |
| Mace Ceremonial mace The ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority. The mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon... |
The Mace of Northwest Territories | January 2000 | It is the symbol of the Authority of the Legislative Assembly. It is a ceremonial staff carried by the Sergeant-at-Arms into the Chamber. | |
| Flower Flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs... |
Mountain avens Dryas octopetala Dryas octopetala is an arctic-alpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is a small prostrate evergreen subshrub forming large colonies, and is a popular flower in rock gardens... Dryas octopetala |
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June 1957 | It grows abundantly in the eastern and central Arctic Arctic The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost... , as well as in parts of the Mackenzie River Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River is the largest river system in Canada. It flows through a vast, isolated region of forest and tundra entirely within the country's Northwest Territories, although its many tributaries reach into four other Canadian provinces and territories... |
| Bird Bird Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from... |
Gyrfalcon Gyrfalcon The Gyrfalcon — Falco rusticolus — is the largest of the falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and the islands of North America, Europe, and Asia. It is mainly resident there also, but some Gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter.Individual vagrancy... Falco rusticolus |
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1990 | They are found throughout the tundra Tundra In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine... , including all the Canadian Arctic Archipelago Canadian Arctic Archipelago The Canadian Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Arctic Archipelago, is a Canadian archipelago north of the Canadian mainland in the Arctic... . |
| Tree Tree A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to... |
Tamarack Larch Tamarack Larch Tamarack Larch, or Tamarack, or Hackmatack, or American Larch is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and also south into the northeastern United States from Minnesota to Cranesville Swamp, West Virginia; there is also a... Larix laricina |
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September 9, 1999 | Replaced the Jack pine Jack Pine Jack pine is a North American pine with its native range in Canada east of the Rocky Mountains from Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia, and the northeast of the United States from Minnesota to Maine, with the southernmost part of the range just into northwest Indiana... as territorial tree in 1999. |
| Fish Fish Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups... : |
Arctic grayling Arctic grayling Arctic grayling is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. It comprises five subspecies native to the Nearctic and Palearctic ecozones. T. a. arcticus is widespread throughout the Arctic and Pacific drainages in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, as well as the upper... Thymallus arcticus |
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September 9, 1999 | Found in various habitats in the Northwest Territories Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south... . |
| Mineral Mineral A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not... |
Gold Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a... |
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May 1981 | Gold has played a major role in the development the Northwest Territories. |
| Gemstone Gemstone A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments... |
Diamond Diamond In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions... |
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September 9, 1999 | The first Canadian diamond mine was opened in the Northwest Territories. |
| Tartan Tartan Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland. Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns... |
White, Green, Yellow, Red and Blues | 1961 due to the efforts of the Edmonton Rehabilitation Society for the Handicapped. | The tartan is registered at the Court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms of Scotland | |
| Territorial Symbol | Polar Bear Polar Bear The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size... |
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