The name Dogrib is an English adaptation of their own name, Tłı̨chǫ Done (or Thlingchadinne) – “Dog-Flank People”, referring to their fabled descent from a supernatural dog-man.

On the 1682 Franquelin map, Dogrib was recorded as "Alimousp[i]goiak" (from Cree Alimospikayak, "Dog-Flanks").

In June 1899, negotiation began on Treaty 8, which covered 840,000 km2 (320,000 sq mi) in the Northwest Territory.

The Canadian Government and the various Dene groups, including Yellowknives and Tłı̨chǫ under chief Drygeese with headmen Benaiyah and Sek'eglinan, signed the treaty in 1900 at Fort Resolution (called by the Tłı̨chǫ Įndàà).

At that point in history, Treaty No.8 was the largest land settlement the Canadian Government had ever made (PWNHC, Historical).

The treaty was greatly debated, as the Natives did not want to lose their right to hunt, fish, gather, and trap in the area.

The Tłı̨chǫ groups that signed this treaty were then known as the "Dog Rib Rae Band" (Helm, 7: 1994), constituting the majority of the Tłı̨chǫ population.

11 overlap in several of their boundaries, and continue to cause conflict between the two separate treaty bands (nowadays two First Nations).

8 Dogrib) formed the Yellowknives Dene First Nation[3] in 1991 following the collapse of this territorial-wide comprehensive land claim negotiation.

The legislatures will have, among other authorities, the power to collect taxes, levy resource royalties, which currently go to the federal government, and control hunting, fishing and industrial development.

Though Tłı̨chǫnèk'e is not a separate territory, the extent of its powers has invited comparisons both with the birth of Nunavut and with the creation of the NWT government in 1967.