Yellowknife marks the renaming of Wıìlıìdeh Avenue

A large crowd gathered in downtown Yellowknife on Saturday, to mark the official renaming of Franklin Avenue to Wıìlıìdeh Avenue.

For Ndilǫ Chief Fred Sangris, it was a long time coming.

"None of the names within the city mentioned the Yellowknives Dene, the First Nation that lived here 8000 years before the city was born," he said.

For him, this isn't ancient history.

"Where the post office [is], my grandfather in 1910 got three moose," he said, pointing just down the block from where the ceremony was held. "We've been living here all this time and that one occasion in 1820, John Franklin ... spent a night here and the main street was named after him."

John Franklin may be best known for getting lost trying to find the Northwest Passage, but years before that his disastrous expedition up the Coppermine River ended with half his men dying of starvation. Along with accusations of murder and cannibalism, Franklin's legacy became "the man who ate his boots" after stories that they'd been forced to boil their footwear for food.

"They were cooking their own leather. They were almost out of food then the Yellowknives came and rescued them," said Sangris. "We [wanted] to change the name so that we have a name that remembers us."

He said his grandparents would have been happy to see their people recognized in this way.

Dettah Chief Ernest Betsina agrees. He says he never thought, while growing up in Yellowknife, that he'd see a change like this.

"I was born and raised here. I've seen many changes, some bad changes, but maybe we're starting to see some good changes now, you know," he said. "To actually physically hold the sign was pretty significant. I held a piece of history right in my hand."