The world's richest nickel mine at Voisey's Bay is just the latest important natural resource discovery in Labrador's history. Nine thousand years ago, in the same Voisey's Bay, the aboriginal peoples found and traded an equally choice stone, Ramah chert. The Story of Labrador is the story of the Innu caribou hunters, of the Inuit people of the seal, of French fishermen and Basque whalers, of traders, of absentee governors, of settlers, and of the fight for life in a harshly beautiful land. It is the story of the coming of the industrial machine and the great air base at Goose Bay. It is the...

Newfoundland and Labrador are like two uneasy stepsisters, each with its own distinct identity, trying to share a common house. Using original research, including personal interviews, and drawing on his forty-year association with Labrador, Bill Rompkey explores this relationship in the context of the region's unique racial, geographical, political, and social history. Rompkey charts the rise of Labrador as a giant in Canada's near north. He looks at the impact of the region's vast natural resources, which include the recently discovered nickel mine at Voisey's Bay, the largest in the world,...