These three time lines show when various Indian and Eskimo populations occupied northern and central Labrador and the island of Newfoundland. According to our present knowledge, Indian peoples were established in southern Labrador by 9,000 years ago. By 7,500 years ago, they were well- equipped to harvest the resources of the sea. Known as Maritime Archaic by archaeologists, these people eventually expanded along the entire coast of Newfoundland and up the Labrador coast as far north as Ramah Bay.
Eskimo peoples penetrated Labrador from the north about 4,000 years ago, and by just over 3,000 years ago they had reached the island of Newfoundland. A gap of 300-400 years stands between the apparent end of this early Palaeo-Eskimo culture and the appearance of the Dorset Eskimo people who inhabited the northern part of the province from just over 2,000 years ago to a few hundred years ago. After about 1,400 years ago, the Dorset population, which had also spread to southern Labrador and Newfoundland, began to diminish and eventually disappeared. The forbears of the modern Inuit were present in northern Labrador some 500 years ago.
The Maritime Archaic Indians were succeeded, in central and southern Labrador at least, by another culture described here as Intermediate Indian. These likely predecessors of Indian peoples known historically as Naskapi, Montagnais,and Beothuk occupied central and southern Labrador and Newfoundland after about 2,000 years ago. In relatively recent times, Micmac Indians migrated to Newfoundland from Nova Scotia; with the demise of the Beothuks in 1829, they became the only Indian residents of the island. Diagonal lines are used here to indicate approximate dates.
Courtesy: National Film Board of Canada and National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada
