The Kuukpangmiut - Ancestral Inuvialuit

The origins of the Kuukpangmiut and other ancestral Inuvialuit lie in the distant past. Their history was never written down, but has been preserved in stories passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.

A turning point in Kuukpangmiut history occurred when Europeans began to appear in their lands.  Their first documented encounter with these outsiders – Tang’it, as Kuukpangmiut called them – was in 1826, when they met a British Navy expedition that was on a journey of exploration down the Mackenzie River to the Beaufort Sea.

(“Encampment on Richards Island”, drawn by Lieutenant E.N. Kendall)