Basque Whaling and Inuit Contacts on the Quebec Lower North Shore
Author(s): William Fitzhugh
Year: 2025
Summary
This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Basque Archaeology: Current Research and Future Directions" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
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The first sustained post-Norse northern contacts between Europeans and Indigenous North Americans began in the Gulf of St. Lawrence beginning in the mid-16<sup>th</sup> century. Mik’maq of the southern Gulf were quick to engage with Basque whalers and traders. In the northern Gulf and southern Labrador, Thule Inuit whale hunters attracted to new Little Ice Age whaling grounds and opportunities for European trade found sporadic common ground with Basque whalers and cod fishermen that lasted into the early 18<sup>th</sup> century. Two decades of Smithsonian and University of Montreal research on the Quebec Lower North Shore document this contact history at a series of Basque and Inuit land and underwater archaeological sites. Some sites demonstrate direct collaboration and mutual assistance between Basques and Inuit, while others suggest hostilities as Basques and Inuit become entangled with other Native American and European groups, all eager to extract resources from a bountiful continental gateway region.
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Cite this Record
Basque Whaling and Inuit Contacts on the Quebec Lower North Shore. William Fitzhugh. Presented at The 90th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2025 ( tDAR id: 510137)
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Record Identifiers
Abstract Id(s): 51501