Labrador Inuit - Orientation

"Labrador Inuit" refers to the native Inuit people of Labrador, a section of Canada that is now within the provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland. Scholars have recently suggested that the Inuit of Labrador are more accurately classified as two groups: the Labrador Inuit, on the coast of the Labrador Sea in Newfoundland, and the Inuit of Quebec, on the coasts of Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait and in the interior of Labrador. Aboriginally, the Labrador Inuit lived along the coast of the Labrador Sea from the Button Islands south to Cape Charles. In 1772-1773 there were about 1,460 Labrador Inuit in this region. Today, they live primarily north of Cape Harrison, in the villages of Postville, Makkovik, Hopedale, and Nain and number about 2,000. Also found in this region are people labeled "Settlers" who are descendants of Inuit-White marriages that occurred with considerable frequency after 1763. Settlers are generally not considered Inuit and have had greater access to European-Canadian society and a more stable socioeconomic position than the Inuit. Aboriginally, the Inuit of Quebec were composed of three regional bands: the Siqinirmiut on the coastline of Ungava Bay; the Tarramiut in the northernmost section of Quebec Labrador; and the Itivimiut on the coast of Hudson Bay and inland, south of the Tarramiut. In the early nineteenth century, they numbered about 2,000 and in 1969, numbered 3,561.