Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories
Description
Tuktoyaktuk, or Tuktuyaaqtuuq, is an Inuvialuit hamlet of about 850 people located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. Commonly referred to simply by its first syllable, Tuk, the settlement lies north of the Arctic Circle on the shore of the Beaufort Sea, of the Arctic Ocean. Formerly known as Port Brabant, the community was renamed in 1950 and was the first place in Canada to revert to the traditional Native name.HistoryTuktoyaktuk is the anglicized form of the native Inuvialuit place-name, meaning "resembling a caribou". According to legend, a woman looked on as some caribou, common at the site, waded into the water and turned into stone, or became petrified. Today, reefs resembling these petrified caribou are said to be visible at low tide along the shore of the town.No formal archaeological sites exist today, but the settlement has been used by the native Inuvialuit for centuries as a place to harvest caribou and beluga whales. In addition, Tuktoyaktuk's natural harbour was historically used as a means to transport supplies to other Inuvialuit settlements.
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