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Alternatives North, originally named 'Northern Support Group,' was formed in April 1977 in support of the principles of aboriginal right to land ownership and self-determination. Initially, the group served to present non-native, northern opposition to the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. When the name 'Northern Support Group' was officially registered by a group of Yellowknife businessmen supporting the pipeline, the new name Alternatives North was adopted.

The Diocese of the Arctic was formed in 1933 and incorporated in 1961; however, the administrative boundaries of the Anglican Church in the Northwest Territories have changed many times. In 1884, the Anglican Church created the Diocese of the Mackenzie River and it included parts of the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. In 1891, the Diocese of Selkirk was established and split off the Yukon from the Diocese of the Mackenzie River. In 1933, the Diocese of the Mackenzie River was abolished and the Diocese of the Arctic established. The new diocese consisted of the former Diocese of the Mackenzie River and parts of the Dioceses of Moosonee and Keewatin. It stretched across northern Canada from the Yukon-Alaska boundary to the Quebec-Labrador boundary and included the Ungava Peninsula and the Canadian islands north of the mainland. In 1970, the Episcopal District of Mackenzie River was established, however it rejoined the Diocese of the Arctic in 1974. Today, the Diocese of the Arctic spans the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Nunavik (Arctic Quebec). Originally the See city was in Aklavik with All Saints as the Pro-Cathedral, but in 1972 the See city became Iqaluit, when the Episcopal District of Mackenzie River as formed. The Diocese of the Arctic had has six bishops, Archibald Lang Fleming (1933-1949), Donald Ben Marsh (1950-1973), John Reginald Sperry (1974-1990), John Christopher Richard Williams (1991- 2002), Andrew Atagotaaluk (2002-2012), and David W. Parsons (2012-). The Diocese has also had several Suffragan Bishops, starting with Henry George Cook.

The Episcopal District of the Mackenzie formed in 1970 from part of the Diocese of the Arctic. It was later reabsorbed by the Diocese of the Arctic in 1975. Henry G. Cook was the Bishop of the district.

In September of 1937 Alden Hayes and Wesley L. Bliss began an archaeological and geological survey in Alberta for the University of New Mexico with the cooperation of the Department of Geology, University of Alberta. An expedition was then organized to work in the Mackenzie River basin, from the Sikanni River in British Columbia to the Arctic, and from there into the upper Yukon system of the Bell and Porcupine Rivers to Fort Yukon. This 1938 expedition was funded by the American Philosophical Society and the University of New Mexico. Its members included: Alden Hayes, Douglas Osborne, Joseph Maloney, Thomas Cain, Richard Hayes, and was led by Wesley Bliss.

The Arctic Public Legal Education and Information Society (Arctic PLEI) was established in 1987. It was a non-government organization formed to assist people of the Northwest Territories to become more aware of the law and the legal system, and how to use it more effectively. The organization's programs aimed to reduce and prevent legal problems, increase people's knowledge about the law, the legal process and the justice system and encourage people to protect their rights by understanding the laws that affect them in their everyday lives in areas such as social services, assault, theft and labour. Arctic PLEI provided the public with an opportunity to access free legal advice by coordinating a toll free phone line, produced printed information (in English and Inuktitut) about the law aimed at the general public, produced videos and audio cassettes for use by schools and community groups, visited schools and community groups and held workshops on law-related topics based on needs identified by communities. Workshops were hosted on such topics as family violence, court procedures, women's rights and youth and the law. The organization formerly dissolved in 1996.

Bear Exploration and Radium Limited (BEAR) was incorporated as an Ontario company on June 6, 1932 to finance development of the Contact Lake Mine in the Echo Bay region of Great Bear Lake. The backers of BEAR were an Ontario mining interest represented by William Wright and Harry Oaks. Contact Lake Mine was purchased by BEAR in 1932 and produced silver and a small amount of uranium before shutting down in 1939. The property was later sold, although BEAR retained shares in the International Uranium Mining Company, which had purchased it.
BEAR established a presence in the Yellowknife area in 1933 when their employees C. J. Baker and Herb Dixon discovered free gold and staked the Quyta group of claims. BEAR established a subsidiary, Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd. to develop the claims and several other subsidiaries in the following years to deal with other groups of claims. BEAR, together with Howey Gold Mines Limited, incorporated Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines Limited in 1937. Frobisher Explorations, a subsidiary of Ventures Limited, assumed management control over Giant Yellowknife Gold Mines in 1943. According to a 1944 report on BEAR, they were “a holding company engaged in the acquisition, promotion, financing and exploration of mining prospects in the Northwest Territories.”

BEAR continued to have numerous interests and associated companies, besides Giant, in the Northwest Territories, specifically the Yellowknife area, including International Uranium Mining Co., Yellowrex Mines Limited, Atlas Yellowknife Mines Ltd., Redpointe Gold Mines Ltd., Fort Rae Gold Mines Ltd., Neptune Yellowknife Gold Mines, Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd., Admiral Yellowknife Mines Ltd., Moher Yellowknife Gold Mines, and Rich Group Yellowknife Mines. Around 1944, there was enough activity in Yellowknife that BEAR constructed a staff house on Lot 8, Block 1 (now 3612 Pilots Lane). N. H. C. (Hugh) Fraser and his family moved into the house when he became BEAR’s Manager of operations in the Northwest Territories in July 1946. At that time, BEAR remained headquarted in Toronto, Ontario with H.R. Swanson as President, Ralph Pielsticker as Vice-President, Carl Pielsticker as Treasurer and Director, C.A. Gardiner as Secretary, and G. D. Fairley and J.M. Brewis as directors. Several of these men also served on the boards of BEAR’s associated companies.

Hugh Fraser had worked in the Northwest Territories in the late-1930s as a geologist with the Territories Exploration Company and later Camlaren Mines and Thompson-Lundmark Gold Mines. In 1941, he was transferred by Frobisher Exploration Company to eastern Ontario, but returned to the Northwest Territories in 1944 and was in charge of Frobisher’s activities in Yellowknife until being hired by BEAR in 1946. Fraser continued consulting activities with Giant Yellowknife and Frobisher Exploration after being hired by BEAR. Fraser appears to have moved to Toronto in 1948.

BEAR became less active in the north in the years following, and the Yellowknife house was sol d to John Anderson-Thomson in 1948. He continued to do some work for them into the 1950s. Little is known of their later activities outside of the Territories, however, they underwent name changes, incorporating as Yellowknife Bear Mines Limited in Ontario in 1948, changing their name to Yellowknife Bear Resources Incorporated in 1981, and merging with Rayrock Resources, becoming Rayrock Yellowknife Resources Incorporated, in 1986, and then reverting to the name Rayrock Resources in 1998.

In 1939, S. Hansen travelled towards the Beaulieu River District and staked the NORMA group of claims that would eventually lead to the discovery of the Beaulieu Mine. Immediately following the staking, Norma Tungsten and Gold Mines Ltd. formed to work on the claims and retrieved approximately 15 tons of ore from two pits. Beaulieu Yellowknife Gold Mines Ltd. formed in 1945 and took over the operations on the NORMA claims. In 1945, the construction of a mine site was underway. Between May and July 1947, a compartment shaft was sunk and a mill was quickly erected along with major camp buildings. Despite the initial promising reports of the vein size and grade, it was discovered that the claims were exaggerated. In 1947, A.D. Hellens, an engineer was hired to accurately assess the ore reserves. He reported on 1200 tons in reserve which was only enough to last the mine 2 weeks. The ore was mined during the summer months of 1948 and the Beaulieu Mining operation folded in chaos and bankruptcy at the end of 1948.

The first Boy Scout troop in the NWT was founded in Hay River in 1916. The movement grew slowly at first but gathered strength in the late 1950s and 1960s. Beginning in 1963, the national council's Committee for Arctic and Northern Scouting was responsible for getting new groups established and planning large projects, while provincial councils in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec provided day-to-day guidance and support to Scout groups in the NWT.

Toward the end of the 1960s, the Arctic and Northern Committee decided that Scout groups in the NWT should be served by a council within the NWT, due to increased east-west communications within the NWT as well as a feeling that a northern-based administrative body would better understand and support northern groups. In 1971, the new Northwest Territories Council was chartered. This Council reported directly to the national council, on a level with the provincial councils.

The NWT Council was responsible for overall strategic planning and coordination for Scouting in the NWT. The Council coordinated the registration of members, forwarding national membership fees and registration numbers to the National Council. It organized three NWT Jamborees and other territorial events, programs, and initiatives, as well as providing advice and oversight for regional and local events. The NWT Council produced a number of publications, including the Boreas newsletter aimed at Scouters in the NWT, as well as newsletters and annual reports discussing the activities of the NWT Council itself. The Council also operated two Scout shops in Iqaluit (then Frobisher Bay) and Yellowknife, from which groups could order badges, uniforms, and equipment.

The NWT Council initially divided the territory into five regions: Mackenzie, Great Slave Lake, Arctic, Baffin, and Keewatin. A sixth region, the Yellowknife Region, was added in 1978 and remained until 1996, when it was changed to the Yellowknife District. Between 1995 and 1999 all the regional councils became inactive, so support to groups was provided directly by the NWT Council. With the creation of Nunavut in 1999, the Council changed its name to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council and continued to provide support for groups in both territories.

In 2003, due to logistical issues and declining membership, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Council was dissolved. Scout groups in the NWT became part of the Northern Lights Council in northern Alberta, while those in Nunavut joined the Voyageur Council in northern Ontario.

Boyles Brothers Drilling Company Ltd. was an international company with offices in Vancouver, Port Arthur, Edmonton, the Philippines, Singapore and England. The Yellowknife operation was managed from the Port Arthur, Ontario office until 1948 and subsequently from the Edmonton office. The company's Yellowknife operation was involved with contracted drilling for mining companies and exploration companies.

In 1965, on the recommendation of the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources, the Committee of the Privy Council, via Order in Council 1005, established the Advisory Commission on the Development of Government in the Northwest Territories. The Commission headed by A.W.R. Carrothers, was commonly referred to as the Carrothers' Commission. The mandate of the Commission was to consider the political development of the Northwest Territories and to advise the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources via a report. In 1966, after holding hearings in northern communities, the three-member commission recommended that the issue of dividing the Northwest Territories be further examined in 10 years.

From 1905 to 1967, the administration of the Northwest Territories had been the responsibility of several different federal departments. In 1922, a Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch was organized in the Department of the Interior to be responsible for the administration of the northern territories. In 1936, when the Department of the Interior was abolished, the Branch was transferred to the Department of Mines and Resources, where it became the Bureau of Northwest Territories and Yukon Affairs in the Lands, Parks and Forests Branch. From 1947 to 1959, the functions of the Bureau underwent a series of name and department changes: Northwest Territories and Yukon Service, 1947-1950; Northern Administrations Service, 1950-1951; Northern Administration and Lands Branch, 1951-1959; and Northern Administration Branch, 1959-1968.