Crises and Vulnerability: Developing a new historical perspective on contemporary problems in Labrador Innu and Inuit communities

Cuny College Of Staten Island, Staten Island NY

Investigators

Abstract

ABSTRACT Crises and Vulnerability: Developing a new historical perspective on contemporary problems in Labrador Innu and Inuit communities This SGER research project examines the changing ways native peoples of Labrador have sought to deal with a long history of high-mortality introduced disasters, from the 1830s to the early 1970s, when the current epidemics of child substance abuse and youth suicides began. These earlier crises and disasters include famines, often caused by Hudson Bay Company policies, epidemics of novel diseases, endemic diseases with very high mortality rates, particularly tuberculosis, and frequent forced relocations, often with disastrous consequences. The purpose of this research is to develop and pretest new analytical tools for understanding how native peoples formerly more effectively dealt, or have been able to partially deal, with this history of vulnerability and crises. These new analytical tools may help us to more usefully understand contemporary crises in Labrador native communities.