WHEN WE speak of 'history' we frequently refer to the last five centuries, when Europeans explored and later settled the New World. But for thousands of years previous to that time aboriginal peoples made the Labrador Straits home. The oldest known site of prehistoric occupation is located near today's town of Pinware and dates to about 9,000 years ago.

In contrast, the modern communities of the Labrador Straits were founded only about 200 years ago. That represents just 2% of the total time that people have lived in our region....

A people known today as Palaeo-Indians established campsites in the Labrador Straits 9,000 years ago, hunting sea mammals along the coast and fishing for salmon in the rivers.

An adaptive lifestyle called the Maritime Archaic tradition developed as these people learned to exploit the rich maritime resources. Near today's community of L'Anse Amour a young Maritime Archaic boy died some 7,500 years ago. His grave site, the L'Anse Amour burial mound, is the oldest known funeral monument in North America.

Thousands of years after their initial arrival in the Labrador Straits, the Maritime Archaic people spread to northern Labrador and crossed the Strait of Belle Isle to the Island of Newfoundland. Yet by about 3,000 years ago they had disappeared from all of Labrador and Newfoundland.

Subsequently, the coastline of the Labrador Straits was settled by other Native people, known only sketchily to archaeologists as "Intermediate" and "Recent" Indians. These people were possibly the ancestors of present-day Innu people of Labrador.

Another, very different, aboriginal culture also arrived in the Labrador Straits after the Maritime Archaic people. The Early Palaeo-Eskimo tradition spread across the eastern Canadian Arctic and southwards along the Labrador coast. Later, a second group of Palaeo-Eskimo people known as the Dorset also occupied these areas. Within the last 1,000 years the Thule culture, the ancestors of the modern-day Inuit, arrived in Labrador.

Today there are no communities of aboriginal people in the Labrador Straits, yet the region has an exceedingly rich archaeological heritage -- demonstrating the important role it played in the initial settlement of what is now eastern Canada.

Breton and Basque fishermen discovered the rich maritime resources of the Labrador Straits early in the 16th century.

By about 1550 the Basques had established numerous whaling stations along the southern Labrador coast. The largest and busiest port was Red Bay, the World Whaling Capital of the late 16th century. Thousands of Basque whalers made Red Bay a seasonal home, hunting Right and Bowhead whales and refining the valuable oil for European markets.

More than 15 years of archaeological research has uncovered the remains of some 20 whaling stations in Red Bay. Underwater explorations in the harbour have led to the discovery of three Basque galleons and several small boats, the best preserved examples of 16th century vessels in the New World. Discover an incredible story of exploitation, profit and hardship as you explore Labrador's 16th century at the Red Bay Visitor Centre.

Prior to the 1763 Treaty of Paris southern Labrador was an extension of New France, under the ownership of the French King.

The King granted concessions to select members of society which gave them exclusive rights to fish and trade. In 1702 a vast concession, including all of southeastern Labrador, was granted to Augustin de Courtemanche for a period of ten years.

It was not until 1713, when a much smaller concession in southern Labrador was awarded to Pierre Constantin, that the first French post was built here. At Red Bay and Riviére des Francois (Pinware River) Constantin built establishments for a seal fishery. The post at Grand St. Modet (today's community of West St. Modeste) produced oil - rendered from the fat of seals - and salted seal pelts for shipment to Quebec City.

France's right to fish along the Labrador coast ended in 1763. The following decades saw the arrival of new mercantile interests in the Labrador Straits.

English and Jersey merchants established cod fishing stations at L'Anse au Loup, Forteau, L'Anse au Clair and Blanc Sablon.

Unlike the Jersey merchants, who concentrated exclusively on the summer cod fishery, the English firms were interested also in other resources, including seals and salmon. The Devon-base firm of Noble and Pinson established a sealing post at West St. Modeste and a salmon post at Pinware as early as 1774.

Most of the men engaged by these merchant firms left Labrador at the end of the summer fishing season. A few remained behind to care for premises or to engage in the winter seal fishery. These "winter men" were the first year-round white residents of the Labrador Straits.

For centuries British law forbade settlement on the coast of Labrador, as it was felt that a resident population would compete with British merchants in the fishery.

This changed in the mid-19th century and settlers from England, Jersey and Newfoundland joined the "winter men" (see preceding) in Labrador.

Most of the first British settlers arriving after 1830 were artisans, not fishermen, possible put out of work by industrialization in Britain. Single women, whose average age was 18 years, came from Newfoundland to marry the new settlers. Eventually the British fishery was replaced by a fishing industry controlled by merchants from the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland. The permanent settlers or liveyeres in the Straits were still dependent upon the merchants for supplies exchanged for their winter catches.

After 1850 there was a larger influx of single men and women and families from Newfoundland's east coast. Many of these were fishermen that sailed to Labrador each year as crews for Newfoundland merchants, but gradually began to operate independently. During this period, the economy of the Straits shifted from the winter resources to stationer, or shore-based, summer fishery. Although merchants and stationers continued to exploit the fishery from outside the region, the permanent residents of the Labrador Straits gradually developed their own identity. The summer fishery was augmented by winter and spring activities such as fur-trapping and sealing.

Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell spent over 40 years of his life serving the residents of northern Newfoundland and coastal Labrador.

In 1887 Dr. Grenfell joined the Royal National Mission to Deep-Sea Fishermen as a medical missionary. In 1892 he came to Labrador with two doctors and two nurses and, the following year, established the first hospital of the mission in the New World at Battle Harbour, on the southeastern Labrador coast. The Mission's first nursing station in the Labrador Straits, Denison Cottage, was established in Forteau in 1907.

As Dr. Grenfell spent much of his time away from Labrador, his main value to the mission was his ability as a fund raiser. In a full page advertisement which appeared May 25, 1914 in the Christian Endeavour World Grenfell summarized what financial contributions could do:

• $1000 will operate a nursing station for one year
• $600 will pay a nurse's salary
• $500 will pay for a social worker or teacher
• $250 will cover travelling expenses for one worker
• $150 will maintain a child for a year
• $50 will provide an orphanage with three week's milk
• $25 will clothe a child for one year
• $5 will maintain an orphan for two weeks

Grenfell was also instrumental in development a craft industry in the northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Hundreds of individuals produced clothing, hooked mats, beadwork, grass baskets, carvings and other items which the Mission purchased for cash or credit slips redeemable for medical services or used clothing. The crafts were resold, usually in the United States. The Mission called this cottage industry its "Industrial Department". The centre of activity in the Labrador Straits was at the Red Bay Industrial Building.