The Kuukpangmiut - Ancestral Inuvialuit

“They saw three kayaks returning from the country of the Kuukpangmiut, people-of-the-great-river.” (I, Nuligak)

The Kuukpangmiut were one of several groups of people whose descendants are the Inuvialuit of the western Canadian Arctic. They emerge from the mists of time in stories told by Inuvialuit elders, such as Nuligak.

Kuukpangmiut means People of ‘Kuukpak’, or ‘Great River’, the Inuvialuit name for the Mackenzie River.  Kuukpak also was the name of a Kuukpangmiut village.

(Photo of Nuligak and son Andy circa 1955 by Bern Will Brown. Watercolour illustration by Autumn Downey)