ABSTRACT
In this chapter the authors focus on role of archaeology in contemporary Innu society, exploring how trails leading back to the past are anchored in the present and lead to the future. Throughout the North, it has been less than 50 years since economic, political and technological developments have enabled business and government to radically develop the lands and resources. The official correspondence of nineteenth-century Hudson Bay Company officials stationed in northern Labrador consistently laments the stubbornness of the Indians, their 'tiresome independence'. To the Western science of archaeology, Labrador remained essentially terra incognita before research launched by William Fitzhugh in late 1960s. With few exceptions, the practice of archaeology (especially in the North) has not paid much attention to the concerns and interests of the native communities that were in the vicinity of 'digs'. Ironically, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington is an important repository for the study of Innu history and culture materials, with collections dating back to 1881.
