Kugluktuk
| Kugluktuk (Coppermine) |
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 Kugluktuk |
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| Location in Nunavut | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Territory : | Nunavut | ||
| Region: | Kitikmeot | ||
| Coordinates : | 67 ° 49 ′ N , 115 ° 7 ′ W | ||
| Area : | 549.65 km² | ||
| Residents : | 1450 (status: 2011-05-02) | ||
| Population density : | 2.6 inhabitants / km² | ||
The settlement Kugluktuk ( Inuinnaqtun : Qurluktuk , "place with rapids", Inuktitut : ᖁᕐᓗᖅᑐᖅ), until January 1, 1996 Coppermine , is located on the north Canadian mainland between the sandbanks of the mighty Coppermine River and the banks of the Coronation Gulf and is thus the westernmost Municipality of Nunavut Territory (the name Kugluktuk has been mutilated; the original Inuktitut name is Qurluqtuq, which means “two startled people”).
Of the approximately 1300 inhabitants, around 85% are Inuit , who are known as the Copper Inuit after the nearby Copper Mountains .
When the first Europeans arrived in 1771 Samuel Hearne on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company on overland expeditions from the Prince of Wales Fort in Churchill at the Arctic Ocean to here after copper look. He founded Coppermine in 1771 as a mining settlement. In 1865, 30% of the Inuit population in the area fell victim to a flu epidemic. The first Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in 1918, followed by Anglican missionaries in 1928 after the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post in 1927. In 1932 a police post was established. Later a weather station, a radio station, an infirmary and a school were built.
In 2007, Kugluktuk went through the international press because the population had voted in a local referendum with more than 60% in favor of severely restricting the supply of alcohol. The vote was preceded by protests by local youth against the widespread alcohol abuse.
Scheduled flight connection ( First Air Ltd.) exists to Yellowknife .
Near the settlement is the Kugluk Territorial Park with the Bloody Falls on the Coppermine River.
literature
- Miriam Dewar (Ed.): The Nunavut Handbook: Traveling in Canada's Arctic . Ayaya Marketing & Communications, Iqaluit / Ottawa 2004, ISBN 0-9736754-0-3 (English).
- John R. Sperry: Igloo Dwellers Were My Church: The Memoirs of Jack Sperry, Anglican Bishop of the Arctic . Bayeux Arts, Calgary 2001, ISBN 1-896209-58-0 (English).
