Inuviluq

The Inuviluq, or Inuvialuit of the lower Mackenzie, are the Western Canadian Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta and the adjacent Beaufort Sea coast, whose communities include Aklavik, Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. They descend from the Thule Inuit who spread east from Alaska, and the delta's original Inuit were the Siglit, who hunted beluga whales and caribou and fished the countless channels of the great river they call Kuukpak.

The Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reached the delta's Arctic mouth by boat in 1789, the first European to do so, and Sir John Franklin surveyed the same coasts in 1825, passing through waters and channels long used as Inuit camps, fishing grounds and beluga hunting stations.