by David Adelman

Created on: May 19, 2009   Last Updated: July 13, 2009

Aboriginal Groups in Newfoundland and Labrador

The Inuit, the Innu, the Micmac and the Metis are the four distinct Aboriginal groups inhabiting Newfoundland and Labrador today. The Inuit live along the north coast of Labrador and are descended from prehistoric hunters called the Thule people. The Thule moved from Alaska to the Labrador coastline and the Strait of Belle Isle around 800 years ago as they followed the seals and whales in their hunting. (http://www.onpedia.com/encyclopedia/thule-(people). The Innu and their ancestors have occupied eastern Quebec and Labrador for at least two thousand years and there are currently eleven communities in Quebec and two in Labrador, one of which is at Davis Inlet off the north coast. (

http://www.cqsb.qc.ca/svs/434/fninnu.htm). It has not been archaeologically determined whether the Innu are descended from the Maritime Archaic Indians who lived in this region eight thousand years ago. (http://www.cqsb.qc.ca/svs/434/fninnu.htm) The origin of the Micmacs is not certain; however, it is estimated that ten thousand years ago the Micmacs occupied Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, eastern New Brunswick and a part of the Gasp Peninsula. The Micmacs were the ones who greeted the first European visitors to their coasts especially after John Cabot's 1497 voyage to the Gulf of St. Lawrence opened the waterways to European traders. The Micmacs traded furs for European products and brought these products to Natives as far as New England. Travelling in small sailing vessels called shallops, the Micmacs reached Newfoundlandand during the period of trade with the Europeans and remained there. The Micmacs are found mainly on Newfoundland's south coast in a reserve called Conne River. (http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/mikmaq_history. html) The Labrador Metis are the "mixed" descendants of European men and Inuit women and live in communities on the central and southern Labrador coast. As discussed in detail in the following section, the Beothuk were the first native inhabitants of Newfoundland and occupied different parts of the island as their seasonal hunting and food gathering patterns dictated. The last known Beothuk, Shanawdithit, died in 1829 I St. John's.

Archaeological evidence suggests that natives occupied Newfoundland over five thousand years ago. (Marshall) According to historian Ingeborg Marshall, the Beothuk are considered to be descendants

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