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Behchokǫ̀, Northwest Territories (Canada)

formerly Rae-Edzo

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

Behchokǫ̀
Current Flag
- Design
- Symbolism
- Selection
- Designer
Former flag

See also:

Behchokǫ̀

Behchokǫ̀, with a combined population of 1662 (as of 1996), consists of two settlements, located 6 km one across the other on the opposite shores of the northern arm of the Great Slave Lake. Rae is located at 62°50'N lat. and 116°04'W long., on a rocky peninsula on the southeast shore of Marian Lake; Edzo is at 62°40'N lat. and 116°04'W long., spread over two islands and part of the mainland. Local languages are Dogrib and English, and the community belongs to the electoral district of North Slave and to the land claim area of Dogrib.
Antonio Martins, 29 June 2000

Behchokǫ̀ was originally two villages—Rae, named for John Rae, who established a Hudson’s Bay Company post in 1852 at Old Fort Rae, and Edzo, named for Chief Edzo, who was a Tlicho leader who made peace in 1823 with Akaitcho, the Yellowknife Dene leader. In 1971 the two villages amalgamated and became the community of Rae-Edzo, and in 2005 the community’s name was changed to Behchokǫ̀, which means “Mbehcho’s place”. Rae is about 15 km from the village of Edzo on a rocky peninsula on the southeast shore of Marion Lake. Edzo is on the east shore of the West Channel which flows between Marion Lake and the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, the fourth largest lake in Canada, and eleventh largest in the world. The town receives economic benefit, such as fishing, from the lakes.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Current Flag

Text and image(s) from Canadian City Flags, Raven 18 (2011), courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association, which retains copyright. Image(s) by permission of Eugene Ipavec.

Design

The flag of the Community Government of Behchokǫ̀ is a Canadian pale design of dark blue-white-dark blue, with the town’s logo in the centre, three-fourths the height of the flag. The logo consists of a medium blue ring, bordered in black, surrounding a disc divided white over medium blue by a horizontal black line with pointed waves. In the centre is a dark brown teepee with the ends of three black poles extending from the top. The teepee is divided by a very narrow vertical line, meeting a base and a round-topped door, all in black.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Symbolism

The Tlicho people have strong beliefs in water spirits, probably due to their close geographical proximity to the bodies of water, which are represented on the logo by the wavy blue base. The teepee represents the native Tlicho, formerly known as the Dogrib, a once-nomadic people whose hunting lifestyle centred on the caribou hunt. In the summer they would live in temporary teepees covered with bark, spruce boughs, or caribou hide. The Canadian pale design is a reference to Behchokò as a Canadian municipality and echoes the territorial flag. The blue wavy line on the seal represents the entire Great Slave Lake.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Selection

All such NWT and Nunavut civic flags were designed in 1985 for the Northwest Territories Exhibition Hall at Vancouver’s Expo ’86, at the initiative of heraldry enthusiast Michael Moore, then a deputy minister at the NWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA). The side-bar colours of these Canadian pale designs vary from dark blue, to green, to brown, and to bright red.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Designer

Unknown. Rob Butler, graphic artist at Inkit Graphics in Yellowknife, NWT, adapted the design from the earlier flag.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011

Former flag

1:2 image by Eugene Ipavec
Source: Canadian City Flags, Raven 18

A previous f lag, also in a Canadian pale design of blue-white-blue, bears the pre-name-change version of the seal. It has a yellow ring inscribed INCORPORATED HAMLET OF above and — RAE ~ EDZO — below, all in black sans-serif letters.
Jim Croft, Canadian City Flags, Raven 18, 2011