Basque Archaeology and the Wider World: An Emerging Legacy
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
setName: label: See more items in
content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival
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content: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival / Series 2: Basque: Innovation by Culture / 2.3: Audio
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Sound recording (digital audio file)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2016 July 10
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.SFF.2016, Item SFF2016_0710_Basque_Euskaldunak_Dialogues_0007
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Listening copies available
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: John Bieter (presenter); Lorea Bilbao; Asier Madarieta; Xabier Berroeta (participants) During their time in Canada, the Basque people had a unique history of confrontation and collaboration with the Inuit people. Traces of this relationship can be seen in the artifacts found in the whaling stations where Inuit technology is found. The principle target of the Basque whaling endeavors was the Greenland right whale due to the plentiful oil and baleen that this species could provide. By the nineteenth century, the Greenland right whales were nearly extinct, which decimated the whaling industry. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Basques in St. Lawrence turned to cod fishing, and trade with the Native Indian communities. The combination of remnants of Basque and Inuit cultures suggests new perspectives on the early encounters and relationships between Native communities and European peoples. This unforeseen Basque history has emerged from the discoveries of archeologists within their work on Basque whaling sites in Canada.