Utkuhikhalik,[2] Utkuhikhaliq,[3] Utkuhiksalingmiutitut,[4][5] Utkuhiksalingmiutut,[4] Utkuhiksalingmiut Inuktitut,[5] Utku,[6] Gjoa Haven dialect, is a sub-dialect of Natsilingmiutut (Nattiliŋmiut) dialect of Inuvialuktun (Western Canadian Inuit or Inuktitut) language once spoken in the Utkuhiksalik (ᐅᑦᑯᓯᒃᓴᓕᒃ Chantrey Inlet) area of Nunavut, and now spoken mainly by elders in Uqsuqtuuq (or Uqšuqtuuq ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑑᖅ Gjoa Haven) and Qamani'tuaq (ᖃᒪᓂ‛ᑐᐊᖅ Baker Lake) on mainland Canada.
Utkuhiksalik has been analysed as a subdialect of Natsilik within the Western Canadian Inuktun (Inuvialuktun) dialect continuum.
The comparison of some words in the two sub-dialects:[1] Franz Boas included the Ukusiksalirmiut as a tribe of the "Central Eskimo" in the 1888 Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Smithsonian Institution,[10] The last tribe of the Central Eskimo, the Ukusiksalirmiut, inhabit the estuary of Back River.
Klutschak affirms that they are the remains of a strong tribe which formerly inhabited Adelaide Peninsula but was supplanted by the Netchillirmiut and the Ugjulirmiut.
It is very remarkable that all the natives west of Boothia depend much more on fish than do any other tribes of the Central Eskimo.He considered the Ukusiksalik (Wager River) to be one of "five principal settlements" which included the "Aivillirmiut are Pikiulaq (Depot Island), Nuvung and Ukusiksalik (Wager River), Aivillik (Repulse Bay), Akugdlit (Committee Bay), and Maluksilaq (Lyon Inlet).
"[10]: 450 Their team was not able to make the sledge journeys by ice from Nuvung to Ukusiksalik in the winter of 1864-1865 because large water holes were formed at "the entrance of the bay.
"[10]: 663 The Danish explorer, Knud Rasmussen during his Fifth Thule Expedition, when he crossed the Canadian Arctic, often by dogsled, visited the Jessie Oonark's camp when she was just a teenager.
Their art work like that of the next generation, which includes many of Oonark's children, reflects many aspects of the Utkuhikhalingmiut culture.