The Inuit-Metis of Sandwich Bay: oral histories and archaeology

Abstract

During the nineteenth century the Inuit-Metis, Inuit and migratory fishermen in southern Labrador constructed and lived in similar sod dwellings. On the surface, the archaeological remains of these dwellings are almost identical, making it difficult to determine the ethnicity of the occupants. To date only one known Inuit-Metis sod dwelling has been excavated and further research is needed to determine how Inuit-Metis ethnicity can be identified in the archaeological record. Focusing on Sandwich Bay, Labrador, this thesis combines oral histories, archaeology, and documentary evidence to examine the lifeways of the Inuit-Metis’s ancestors and to determine how their ethnicity transcends to the archaeological record in comparison to Inuit and European ethnicities.