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Inuit Land Use Patterns In The Hopedale Region, Deirdre A. Elliott

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This paper presents preliminary insights from an exploratory archaeological survey of the Hopedale region, Nunatsiavut. Despite its continued importance — from the 17th century as an Inuit whaling community — to the late 18th century with one of Labrador’s first Moravian missions, to today as the seat of the Nunatsiavut government, Hopedale has seen relatively little archaeological activity since the 1930s, and most of the islands and bays near the town had never been surveyed. A brief survey in the summer of 2018 recorded nearly 30 prehistoric, historic, and ethnographic sites, affirming the Labrador Inuit Association’s 1977 statement– “Our footprints …