They Were Here: A Review of Norse Presence in North America

• Main Author: Rice, Kat
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Brock University 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Baffin Island; Greenland; Norway; Baffin; Newfoundland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/bujh/article/view/4189

The Norse were a culture of expansion that colonized much of the North Atlantic from Norway to Greenland, and briefly North America before their quest for expansion was pushed to the brink. The question thus becomes, did the Norse encounter Indigenous peoples in North America? If yes, what was the nature of their encounters? Archaeologists Peter Schledermann and Karen M. McCullough presented three theories of contact between the Norse and Indigenous peoples: direct contact, indirect contact, and no Norse presence. Though historians and archaeologists previously questioned if there was any contact between the Norse and the Indigenous peoples of North America, recent developments now suggest the Norse had direct contact with Indigenous peoples in Newfoundland, and direct and indirect contact with Indigenous peoples on Baffin Island. This essay explores the historiography of Norse interactions with the Indigenous peoples of North America in Newfoundland and the High Arctic to trace how the understanding of Norse contact has evolved.