The arms was commissioned by the federal Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and designed by well-known heraldry expert Alan Beddoe in the early 1950s.

The two white wavy lines represent the territory's rivers.

[1] The roundel surmounting it is in a pattern called vair (i.e. squirrel fur), representing the territory's wealth of fur-bearing animals.

The crest is an Alaskan Malamute dog standing on a mound of snow.

Shield: Azure, on a pallet wavy Argent, a like pallet of the field, issuant from base two piles reversed Gules, fimbriated also Argent, each charged with two bezants in pale, on a chief Argent a cross Gules, surmounted of a roundel vair.