Labrador Métis are the descendants of European men and (primarily) Inuit women and today live in coastal communities from Lake Melville south to the Strait of Belle Isle. The term Métis (variously spelled, capitalized, accented, and pronounced) means mixed, and is most commonly applied to the Northwest or Red River Métis of Western Canada. In the rest of North America, Métis are descendants of Indian and European unions. In Labrador, the word Métis was first used in 1975. In 1982 the repatriated and amended Canadian Constitution Act included Inuit, Indians [First Nations], and Métis as aboriginal peoples, yet the Act failed to define Métis. Three years later, in 1985, the Labrador Métis Association was formed to represent people of Inuit and European ancestry living south of lands claimed by the Labrador Inuit Association. Following the opinion of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples that Labrador Métis exhibited characteristics essential to nationhood, the Labrador Métis Association changed its name to the Labrador Métis Nation in 1998.

Despite the recent political incorporation of Labrador Métis, their roots are considerably older. Prehistoric Inuit, whom archaeologists call the Thule, moved south into Labrador sometime before 1400 AD. Thule peoples appear to have followed the whales and seals as far south as the Strait of Belle Isle, but our knowledge of historic Inuit occupation and land use south of Groswater Bay remains incomplete and controversial. Selma Barkham noted possible contacts between Inuit and the Basques who hunted whales in the Strait of Belle Isle from about 1540 to the early 1600s, and Charles Martijn believes that there may have been a small, Inuit population in the Strait between 1640 and 1690. By 1694 the French explorer, Louis Jolliet, was trading with Inuit at St. Francis and elsewhere along the southeastern Labrador coast. However, by 1770 Captain George Cartwright, who had a trading post at Cape Charles at the mouth of St. Lewis Sound, initially encountered no Inuit living permanently in the region, although seasonally groups likely visited from the north. Consequently, he sent one of his partners north to 'Auchbucktoke' (either Hopedale or Groswater Bay) to convince an Inuit family to winter at present-day Lodge Bay, near Cartwright's premises. By the early 19th century, however, increased British merchant houses may have induced some Inuit to again move to southern Labrador. Certainly by then numerous historic accounts describe Inuit settlements from Lake Melville south, particularly at Sandwich Bay, St. Francis Harbour, and Fox Harbour.

Captain George Cartwright, n.d. By 1770 Cartwright, who had a trading post at Cape Charles at the mouth of St. Lewis Sound, initially encountered no Inuit living permanently in the region. Copperplate by T. Medland, from a portrait by W. Hilton. From J.A. Cochrane, The Story of Newfoundland (Montreal: Ginn and Company, 1938) 231. (57 kb)

Early in the 19th century, British trading companies, including the Hudson Bay Company, recruited young European men to work in Labrador. Some remained in Labrador, but faced problems finding wives. In the mid-19th century, for example, the Anglican Bishop Edward Feild reported that men outnumbered women 'eight or nine to one' along the southeastern Labrador coast. Fewer still of the available women were Europeans, so, as was the case in Northern Labrador, European men of central and southeastern Labrador married what the Rev. Henry Disney in 1851 called 'Esquimaux women.' Contemporary Métis trace their aboriginal roots to these unions.

Métis families developed a seasonally-ordered economy and society based both on Inuit and European practices and beliefs. Between spring and fall, Métis families hunted migratory waterfowl and seals, and fished for salmon and cod from stations located on the headlands and islands of the outer coast. Families wintered in forested bays and coves, from where they trapped, hunted, and gathered forest products. Social life was also seasonally-ordered. The dispersed, family-based winter settlement pattern reduced contact between Métis families and limited opportunities to foster group identity. Although perhaps an extreme case, Lydia Campbell, writing from Mulligan (Lake Melville) in 1894, noted that her nearest neighbour was 70 miles away. Contact with other Métis families, and with visiting Newfoundland fishers, was more common at summer fishing stations. Yet summer contacts also reminded Métis that they were different from the visiting fishers, and this made some Métis uncomfortable about their aboriginal ancestry. Rupert H. Baxter visited Battle Harbour in the summer of 1891 and described the bustling fishing station of 500 as composed mostly of fishermen (that is, Newfoundlanders or Settlers lacking aboriginal ancestry), although a 'few Esquimaux could be seen.' Baxter also visited the 'Esquimaux living across the bay' (at Fox Harbour) who were poor and 'forlorn' when compared to Settlers at Red Bay and Henley Harbour.

During the early decades of the 20th century, a period David Zimmerly appropriately calls the fur trade florescence, Métis trappers extended their traplines ever deeper into the interior, trapping along the Grand (now Churchill) River and along several rivers emptying into Sandwich Bay. Trappers worked alone, many kilometres from their families, leaving their wives to tend to the needs of home and family. Fur and fish prices dropped with the stock market crash of 1929, further weakening the unstable, often meagre though highly meaningful subsistence-based economy. Construction of an air base at Goose Bay began in 1941 and some Inuit and Métis families moved there either temporarily or permanently to attempt a new way of life. In the 1960s, the new Province of Newfoundland closed many small Métis settlements and centralized people in villages which were believed to offer greater opportunities. These and other 20th century developments have tested but not broken the Métis relationship with the land and sea.

The establishment of the Labrador Métis Association (now Nation) in 1985 is part of the international revival of aboriginal peoples who have been colonized and assimilated to varying degrees into the dominant society. As with such revivals elsewhere, the Labrador Métis Nation (LMN) encourages members to be proud of their aboriginal heritage. The LMN promotes the interests of its nearly 5000 members and offers a range of programs. For example, the Human Resources Training Department of LMN uses federal funds to assist Métis studying in post-secondary educational institutions

In 1991 the LMN filled a comprehensive land claim with the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) for lands customarily occupied and used in central and southeastern Labrador. The LMN submitted supplementary documentation in 1996 but in 1998 the Department of Justice, applying a number of stringent new criteria, recommended to DIAND that the Métis claim be rejected. However, the DIAND has the final say and has not yet ruled in full, as of 1999.