This presentation explores the concepts of cultural identity and continuity in the archaeology of the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Sometimes overlooked, taken for granted or not said aloud these concepts nonetheless can have serious consequences for descendant communities with regards to how they perceive their identity and relations with the land. How can archaeology contribute, as a social science and historic endeavor, to the reconstitution of such narratives in a systematic, objective manner and on solid scientific grounds?

We have a take on strategies related with culture-historical archaeology which we aim to update and put into practice with a case study from a specific case study. The Mingan (Ekuanitshit) region has been the focus of a research project focusing on the late precontact period (2000 BP – Contact) and provides context and data to delve into those questions. Excavation carried by an Innu team and the author on the EbCx-01 site, with recurring occupations between 800 and 300 BP, serves as the main background for this discussion. As a conclusion, recent archaeological research in the Uashat region (Sept-Îles) encourages us to take the discussion to a broader regional context.

Archaeological records and radiocarbon dates for Newfoundland & Labrador’s late precontact period tell an interesting story.  A thousand years ago there were multiple Indigenous populations living here.  Archaeologists working in the province have assigned known sites of that age to at least five archaeological cultures.  Four of these, the North West River phase, and the Cow Head, Point Revenge and Little Passage complexes represent First Nations groups, while one, Dorset, is an Arctic adapted culture.  This was a time of considerable change in the region with some of these groups expanding (Little Passage/Point Revenge), while others were contracting (Cow Head/North West River phase & Dorset).  Within a couple of centuries, Cow Head/North West River phase groups ceased to have a presence here and the Dorset had withdrawn from Newfoundland.  The pace of culture historical change intensified again shortly thereafter with the arrival of a new culture from the north known to archaeologists as Thule.  This culture, ancestral to contemporary Inuit groups living in Labrador today, spread quickly down the coast reaching southern Labrador by the early contact period.  The Dorset disappeared from the archaeological record at the same time and First Nations groups withdrew from coast of Labrador.

For as long as archaeological work has taken place – this work did not start with us, nor did it include us. The Innu were not part of the process of removing our history from the earth. We, the Innu have only recently been part of the interpretation process as tools and organic material are slowly and meticulously removed from Nitassinan.

We now must fight governments and institutions to prove our historical existence against publications and non-Indigenous hypotheses made before our forced settlement into communities – or prior to the introduction of the English language to my people. We now are forced to prove that the Tshiashinnuat walked, lived and utilized resources from what we now know as the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Our story, our history and the footprints of my ancestors are now finally being told by us.

We, the Innu are now beginning to take control of our history told to the world and it is vital that this history finally be told correctly.