The Ekalluk River (variations: ''Ekalluktok'', ''Ekaluktuuk'', ''Ekaluk'') is a river in the Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located in central through southeastern
Victoria Island
Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the List of islands by area, eighth-largest island in the world, ...
. Its source is
Tahiryuaq
Tahiryuaq, formerly Ferguson Lake, (Inuinnaqtun: ') is located on southern Victoria Island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, in northern Canada. It drains westward into Iqaluktuuq (meaning "place of big fish") which is a segment of the Ekallu ...
(Ferguson Lake), and it flows west to
Wellington Bay
Wellington Bay is an Arctic waterway in Kitikmeot Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located in Dease Strait, off southern Victoria Island. It is northwest of the community of Cambridge Bay.
It is one of several Canadian landforms named in honour of A ...
and east to
Albert Edward Bay
Albert Edward Bay is a bay on the southeast side of Victoria Island in the Arctic Archipelago. It faces Victoria Strait to the east. There are several islands in the bay, the largest of which is Admiralty Island at its mouth. Its north side is th ...
. Nearby lakes include Keyhole Lake, Kitigaq, and Surrey Lake. The closest community is Cambridge Bay.
The people of the Ekalluk River area are called
Ekalluktogmiut The Ekalluktogmiut (also spelt Iqaluktuurmiutat and Ikaluktuurmiut) were a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup in Canada's Nunavut territory. They were located along the Ekalluk River near the center of Victoria Island, Albert Edward Bay ...
, a geographically defined
Copper Inuit
Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest ...
subgroup.
Iqaluktuuq
The short span of the Ekalluk River that flows west from Tahiryuaq into eastern Wellington Bay is named Iqaluktuuq (
Inuinnaqtun
Inuinnaqtun (; natively meaning ''like the real human beings/peoples''), is an indigenous Inuit language. It is spoken in the central Canadian Arctic. It is related very closely to Inuktitut, and some scholars, such as Richard Condon, believe ...
, meaning "place of big fish"). Having been inhabited for the last 4,000 years by
Tuniit
The Dorset was a Paleo-Eskimo culture, lasting from to between and , that followed the Pre-Dorset and preceded the Thule people (proto-Inuit) in the North American Arctic. The culture and people are named after Cape Dorset (now Kinngait) in N ...
and
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
, it is an important Nunavut archaeological area. The Iqaluktuuq is a source of char fishing and caribou hunting for local residents.
The people of Iqaluktuuq are called Iqaluktuurmiut.
See also
*
List of rivers of Nunavut
This is a list of rivers that are in whole or partly in Nunavut, Canada:
By watershed Arctic watershed
* Beaufort Sea
**Great Bear Lake ( Northwest Territories)
*** Bloody River
***Dease River
** Horton River
*Viscount Melville Sound
** Nanook Ri ...
References
* Ekalluk River at
Atlas of Canada
The Atlas of Canada (french: L'Atlas du Canada) is an online atlas published by Natural Resources Canada that has information on every city, town, village, and hamlet in Canada. It was originally a print atlas, with its first edition being publishe ...