page_title: NunatuKavut
section_title: 1800s: Intermarriage between the Inuit and Europeans
hierarchical_section_title: NunatuKavut / History / 1800s: Intermarriage between the Inuit and Europeans
caption_attribution_description: English: Birchy Cove, Bay of Islands, Labrador, NL, 1908 Français&#160;: Birchy Cove, Bay of Islands, Labrador, Terre-Neuve, 1908
context_page_description: NunatuKavut is an unrecognized Inuit territory in Labrador. The NunatuKavut people are the direct descendants of the Inuit that lived south of the Churchill or Grand River prior to European contact, with European influence from Basque and French whalers.
  Nunatuĸavut or NunatuKavut means "Our ancient land" in the ancestral Inuttut dialect of the NunatuKavummuit people. The Nunatuĸavut region encompasses Southern Labrador, from the Grand River south to Lodge Bay and west to the extent of the official border between Quebec and Labrador. However, the land use area is much more extensive.
context_section_description: In 1810, an Englishman named William Phippard married an Inuk woman named "Sarah" and they had a son. Some other English fishermen started marrying Inuit woman as well during this time. They were later joined by large numbers of fishermen from Conception Bay and Trinity Bay (who were mostly of English and Irish descent). Many Inuit in southern Labrador took European names. Some of them used anglicised surnames such as "Paulo", "Kippenhuck", "Shuglo", "Tuccolk", "Elishoc", "Alliswack", "Penneyhook", "Tooktusheena" and "Maggo" ("Kippenhuck" and "Toomashie" are the only remaining Inuit surnames (excluding names of people that have moved to NunatuKavut from other places), ("Penneyhook" has become "Penney"). In 1824, it was recorded that the population around Lake Melville consisted of 160 Inuit, 90 European settlers and 60 "half-breeds" (people of European and Inuit descent). Of marriages recorded between 1773 and 1891 in southern and central Labrador, it was shown that 152 married people were Inuit, 27 were European, 14 were mixed and 1 was Mi'kmaq while the ethnic origin of 26 people could not be identified.
  The racial composition of southern Labrador during the 1800s was a mix of the Inuit and English settlers while the north remained Inuit dominant. The culture of southern Labrador was (and remains) a unique blend of Newfoundland's Celtic-influenced culture and the native Inuit culture. The 1935 census showed that almost every resident of Labrador between Cape St. Charles and Cape Harrison had some Aboriginal background.
  Newfoundland exerted significantly more control over Labrador than Canada did over its northern regions. The Newfoundland Ranger Force enforced colonial laws in Labrador like it also did in rural Newfoundland.
caption: Birchy Cove, Labrador in 1908.
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