The people of the Ekalluk River area are called Ekalluktogmiut, a geographically defined Copper Inuit subgroup.

Because of these resources, everyone who has ever lived there has been drawn to this one tiny area like a magnet.

(Max Friesen, University of Toronto archaeologist, 2005) The short span of the Ekalluk River that flows west from Tahiryuaq into eastern Wellington Bay is named Iqaluktuuq (Inuinnaqtun, meaning 'place of big fish').

[4] Having been inhabited for the last 4,000 years by Tuniit and Inuit, it is an important Nunavut archaeological area.

The Iqaluktuuq is a source of char-fishing and caribou-hunting for local residents.