Prior to European contact,
Dene travelled to the area and interacted acrimoniously with nearby
Thule and
Inuit, sometimes ending in deadly raids against each other (see
Bloody Falls massacre). In July 1821, the British
Coppermine expedition team reached the mouth of the Coppermine River, just next to the present day community of Kugluktuk. Arctic explorers
Peter Warren Dease and
Thomas Simpson reached this area in 1838 to survey from
Coronation Gulf at the mouth of Coppermine River to southern
Boothia Peninsula. Dease noted that while his group camped near Bloody Falls, the Copper Inuit would flee when his party approached their camps. Between 1913 and 1916, anthropologist
Diamond Jenness studied and recorded the traditional lifestyle of Inuit around Kugluktuk. Danish fur trader Christian Klengenberg constructed a trading post in 1916 which formed a permanent year-round community known as Fort Hearne. The Hudson Bay Company established a trading post at this community in 1927. Fort Hearne was renamed to Coppermine in 1930. The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police built a police station in 1932. The former name of the community, Coppermine, was named after its namesake Coppermine River. Construction of the
Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) sites,
Lady Franklin Point and
Bernard Harbour, on the opposite shore of
Coronation Gulf in 1955 created some employment opportunities for the locals. In 1982, a
division plebiscite was held. About 80% of the population in what is now Nunavut voted in favour of division; Coppermine was one of only two communities to vote against it,
Cambridge Bay was the other. In 1996, a healing ceremony between Dene and Inuit took place to reconcile for historical grievances. The community also changed its name from Coppermine to Kugluktuk on January 1, 1996. == Demographics ==