Indigenous peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Indigenous peoples of Newfoundland and Labrador are the inhabitants of the northeastern Canadian province whose descendants lived in the region before the arrival of European settlers. The Canadian government considers Indigenous peoples to be members of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Métis are mixed-race descendants of First Nations people and Europeans, while the Inuit are Indigenous residents of the northernmost regions of North America. Newfoundland and Labrador was home to four Indigenous identities: the Innu, Inuit, Mi'kmaq, and Southern Inuit. The 2021 Canadian Census listed the province's Indigenous population at 46,550. Of this population, 28,430 were First Nations, 7,330 were Métis, and 7,335 were Inuit.

Demographics

Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost and youngest of Canada's provinces. Labrador on the Canadian mainland makes up about three-quarters of the province's 156,450-square-mile (405,212-square-kilometer) total area. Most of the population lives on the island of Newfoundland, which lies about 12 miles (20 kilometers) off the coast of Labrador. Quebec borders the Labrador region on the west and south. The North Atlantic Ocean bounds three sides of Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence borders the west.

Temperatures in the rugged, subarctic terrain of Labrador can average about 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius) in winter and about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) in summer. Temperatures on Newfoundland are more moderate, with winter averages in St. John's at about 24 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius) and summer averages at about 61 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius).

Explorer John Cabot called Newfoundland the "new isle" when he first sighted it in 1497. The Labrador region was most likely named after Portuguese explorer João Fernandes, a lavrador, or "landowner," who was part of an expedition to the region in 1500. Until the early nineteenth century, Labrador was part of the region that would become Quebec. While it became part of the British territory of Newfoundland in 1809, the two sides squabbled over its borders until British courts decided the issue in 1927. Newfoundland became a Canadian province in 1949, and in 2001, its name was officially changed to Newfoundland and Labrador.

The province had a 2024 population of 541,391, according to World Population Review. In 2021, about 212,579 people resided in its largest city, St. John's, on the southeastern coast of Newfoundland. According to the 2021 census, the First Nations population of Newfoundland and Labrador was 28,430, the Métis numbered 7,330, the Inuit was at 7,335, and the remainder reported other Indigenous identities. The accuracy of those figures is clouded by a long-running dispute between the provincial government and the Indigenous population. When Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada in 1949, the province recognized very few members of its native population. After decades of negotiations, the government began granting some groups First Nations status. In 2008, Canada agreed to create the Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation and set up an enrollment process to officially establish the band by 2011. By 2012, however, the federal government had received more than 104,000 applications for First Nations status—more than four times the number of people who identified as Indigenous in the 2006 census. Canada and the province began a years-long review process to resolve the issue. As of 2021, the Canadian Census listed 46,550 Indigenous people in Newfoundland and Labrador while 1,807,250 lived in Canada as a whole.

Background

The earliest signs of human habitation in the region date back about 9,000 years when a group of seafaring people landed in southeastern Labrador and established a culture known as the Maritime Archaic. They migrated to Newfoundland about 5,500 years ago. About 4,000 years ago, another group called Paleo-Eskimos arrived in northern Labrador and later moved south into Newfoundland. By 2,000 years ago, the Maritime Archaic culture had vanished and was replaced by another called the Recent Indians. These people adopted a more land-based society and were the ancestors to the modern Innu and an eventually extinct group called the Beothuk. The Paleo-Eskimos disappeared about 1,000 years ago. They were replaced by the Thule, ancestors of the Inuit who moved east from the region of modern Alaska.

The first known contact between Europeans and North American Indigenous people occurred in Newfoundland in 1000 CE. Leif Eriksson and an expedition of Norse explorers landed on the island's northern peninsula and established a settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. The Norsemen encountered a group they called the Skraelings, a group believed to be the Beothuk. While the two sides attempted to engage in trade, skirmishes broke out between the cultures. The Norse abandoned the settlement after three years.

The Beothuk were a fishing and hunting people who inhabited the entire island of Newfoundland. When the next wave of European explorers arrived in the region about 1500, the Beothuk, perhaps remembering tales of their previous contact with foreigners, retreated inland away from the newcomers. Cut off from their traditional coastal fishing grounds and ravaged by disease brought by the Europeans, their population dwindled until the last known Beothuk died in 1829. Other native groups were also affected by the arrival of the newcomers. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whalers and fishers from France, Spain, England, and the Netherlands began targeting the region's abundant supply of cod and other ocean resources. The expeditions into the waters around Labrador often brought them into conflict with the Inuit and Innu.

The British claimed the island of Newfoundland in 1583 and established a fishing settlement. The Mi'kmaq, a people from the region of modern Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, began traveling north to trade with the English for European goods such as kettles, blankets, and knives. Some Mi'kmaq eventually settled on the island and established a community near the Conne River on the southern coast.

When Newfoundland became a province in 1949, the status of its Indigenous people was not addressed in its provincial bylaws. Newfoundland's leaders believed the Mi'kmaq on the island had assimilated into Canadian society and recorded only 530 people as having a First Nations identity. As a result, the province's Indigenous people were not covered under the Indian Act, a federal statute that provided programs and services to those with recognized First Nations status. In the 1970s, native activists formed political organizations to fight for Indigenous rights. In 1984, the Conne River Mi'kmaq were the first Indigenous group in Newfoundland and Labrador to be granted First Nations status. In 2005, the government reached an agreement with the Inuit in northern Labrador to establish a self-governed region called Nunatsiavut.

Overview

According to Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, four First Nations communities existed in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2021. Two were Innu reserves in Labrador, and two were Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland. The Inuit in Nunatsiavut live in the extreme north of Labrador, while the Southern Inuit are a mixed-race people of European and Inuit descent.

Mi'kmaq

The Mi'kmaq called their traditional homeland Mi'gma'gi and divided the region into seven districts covering Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and parts of Quebec. An eighth district, Tagamgoog, is sometimes included to encompass the Mi'kmaq living in Newfoundland. As of 2023, about 66,748 registered Mi'kmaq existed in Canada, with 836 living on the Miawpukek reserve in Conne River and 2,265 living off-reserve. The Qalipu Mi'kmaq First Nation is a community without reserve lands. Its 2021 population of 24,464 makes it the second largest First Nations community in Canada, trailing only the 29,209-member Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve in Ontario. The Mi'kmaq language is part of the Algonquian language family and was spoken by an estimated 9,245 people across Canada in 2021. Mi'kmaq means "the people" in their native language.

According to some legends, the Mi'kmaq lived on Newfoundland long before the Europeans arrived in the sixteenth century. Many researchers believe that while they may have occasionally visited the island as part of their traditional hunting, fishing, and trapping activities, they did not establish permanent settlements there until the eighteenth century. The Mi'kmaq were the first Indigenous people of North America to accept Christianity, a religion brought by the French to their colonies in New France. In 1610, the Mi'kmaq entered into an agreement with the Vatican, making the Mi'kmaq subjects of the Catholic Church. While their religious beliefs were embraced in French territory, the Mi'kmaq's Catholic faith clashed with the policies of British-held Newfoundland. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth entries, the British monarchy was involved in a dispute with the Catholic Church in Rome, and anti-Catholic sentiment was common in England and its overseas colonies.

For centuries, the Mi'kmaq were ruled by a Grand Council, which made decisions affecting all the districts of Mi'gma'gi. The council consisted of a grand chief, or Kji Sagamaw, and several regional chiefs called Sagamores. The council met on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia into 2017 and included a representative chief from Tagamgoog in Newfoundland; however, it was no longer considered a political body and mostly was concerned with promoting Mi'kmaq language and culture.

Innu

The Innu, a name that means "the people" in their language, have also been called the Naskapi, or Montagnai—a French term meaning "mountain people." According to Innu Nation, about 29,209 Innus reside on two reserves in Labrador; the Sheshatshiu First Nation, the largest, and the Mushuau Innu First Nation. . The Innu are the eastern relatives of the Cree, the largest First Nations people in Canada. The Innu were traditionally nomadic hunters and fishers who traveled by snowshoe and toboggan in winter and canoe in summer in search of game. The Innu language, Innu-aimun, is one of the most widely spoken Indigenous dialects in Newfoundland and Labrador with 1,600 speakers as of 2021.

Inuit

The Inuit are an Indigenous people who reside in the Arctic regions from Greenland to Russian Siberia. In Canada, the native Inuit homeland is called Inuit Nunangat and encompasses the area of Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador, northern Quebec, the territory of Nunavut, and parts of the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Of the entire Inuit population of about 155,792, an estimated 70,540 lived in Canada, and 7,335 lived in Newfoundland and Labrador. The majority of Inuit in the province reside in the Labrador communities of Nain, Hopedale, Rigolet, Makkovik, and Postville. The Inuit language is part of the Eskimo-Aleut family, with the Labrador Inuit speaking a dialect known as East Inuktitut. The traditional Inuit lifestyle relied on fishing and hunting whales, seals, and caribou in the Arctic environment. Many Inuit have adapted their traditional way of life to the modern era, engaging in cod and salmon fishing, making seal and fish netting, and fur trapping.

Southern Inuit

The Southern Inuit are primarily the descendants of European fishers who married Inuit wives centuries ago. At one time, they were called Labrador Inuit-Métis, but since Métis became more commonly used to refer to people of European and Cree or Ojibway descent in western Canada, they prefer Southern Inuit. Southern Inuit culture has adopted both European and Inuit influences, incorporating a hunting and fishing lifestyle and speaking English as a primary language. In the twenty-first century, the Southern Inuit live in several communities on the central and southern coast of Labrador.

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