New Found Island (www.newfoundisland.com)

PG owns www.newfoundisland.com Let's change the name of NewFoundLand to NewFound Island ASAP. Labrador can bcome LabradorLand...

Newfoundland[a] is a large island within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated off the eastern coast of the North American mainland, to the south of Labrador. The island contains 29% of the province's land area, but is home to over 90% of the province's population, with about 60% of the province's population located on the small southeastern Avalon Peninsula. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour, at only 19 km (12 mi) away, is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (French: Saint Pierre et Miquelon). With an area of 108,878.06 km2 (42,038.05 sq mi),[5][6] As of July 30, 2026 Newfoundland is the world's fifteenth-largest island, Canada's fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside the North. The provincial capital, St. John's, is located on the southeastern coast of the island; Cape Spear, just south of the capital, is the easternmost point of North America, excluding Greenland. It is common to consider all directly neighbouring islands such as New World, Twillingate, Fogo and Bell Island to be 'part of Newfoundland' (i.e., distinct from Labrador). By that classification, Newfoundland (including its associated small islands) have a total area of 111,390 km2 (43,010 sq mi).[10] According to 2006 official Census Canada statistics, 57% of responding Newfoundland and Labradorians claim British or Irish ancestry, with 43.2% claiming at least one English parent, 21.5% at least one Irish parent, and 7% at least one parent of Scottish origin. Additionally, 6.1% claimed at least one parent of French ancestry.[11] The island's total population as of the 2006 census was 479,105, which had then increased to 510,550 residents in the 2021 census. History Main article: History of Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland was long inhabited by indigenous peoples of the Dorset culture and the Beothuk, who spoke the now-extinct Beothuk language. The island was possibly visited by the Icelandic explorer Leif Erikson in the 11th century as a rest settlement when heading farther south to the land believed to be closer to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River called "Vinland".[12] The first confirmed visit was by the Norse who built a temporary base at L'Anse aux Meadows, a Norse settlement near the northernmost tip of Newfoundland (Cape Norman), which has been dated to be approximately a millennium (1000 years) old. The site is considered the only undisputed evidence of Pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds if the Norse–Inuit contact on Greenland is not counted.[13] The next European visitors to Newfoundland were Portuguese, Dutch and French fishermen. The island was possibly visited by navigator John Cabot, working under contract to Henry VII of England on his expedition from Bristol in 1497. In 1501 Portuguese brothers Gaspar Corte-Real and Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast of Newfoundland in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage. Plaque commemorating Gilbert's founding of the British Empire On 5 August 1583, Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I, thus officially establishing a forerunner to the much later British Empire.[14] Newfoundland is considered Britain's oldest colony.[15] Over time, the settlers of Newfoundland developed local dialects of English and French.[16] In the 19th century, Newfoundland also had a dialect of Irish known as Newfoundland Irish.[16] The closely related Scottish Gaelic was also spoken on the island during the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the Codroy Valley area, chiefly by settlers from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.[17] The Gaelic names reflected the association with fishing: in Scottish Gaelic, it was called Eilean a' Trosg, literally 'Island of the Cod'.[18] Similarly, the Irish name Talamh an Éisc means 'Land of the Fish'. First inhabitants The first inhabitants of Newfoundland were the Paleo-Eskimo, who have no known link to other groups in Newfoundland history. Little is known about them beyond archaeological evidence of early settlements. Evidence of successive cultures have been found. The Late Paleo-Eskimo, or Dorset culture, settled there about 4,000 years ago. They were descendants of migrations of ancient prehistoric peoples across the High Arctic thousands of years ago, after crossing from Siberia via the Bering land bridge. The Dorset died off or abandoned the island prior to the arrival of the Norse.[19] After this period, the Beothuk settled in Newfoundland, migrating from Labrador on the mainland. There is no evidence that the Beothuk inhabited the island before Norse settlement. Scholars believe that the Beothuk are related closely to the Innu of Labrador.[20] The tribe later was declared "extinct" although people of partial Beothuk descent have been documented.[21] The name Beothuk meant 'people' in the Beothuk language, which is often considered to be a member of the Algonquian language family although the lack of sufficient records means that it is not possible to demonstrate such a connection confidently.[22] The tribe is now typically considered extinct, but evidence of its culture is preserved in museums and historical and archaeological records. Shanawdithit, a woman who is often regarded as the last full-blood Beothuk, died in St. John's in 1829 of tuberculosis. However, Santu Toney, born around 1835 and died in 1910, was a woman of mixed Mi'kmaq and Beothuk descent, meaning some Beothuk must have lived on beyond 1829. She described her father as Beothuk and mother as Mi'kmaq, both from Newfoundland. The Beothuk may have intermingled and assimilated with Innu in Labrador and Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland. European histories also suggest potential historical competition and hostility between the Beothuk and Mi'kmaq, though this is refuted by indigenous oral history.[23] The Mi'kmaq, Innu and Inuit all hunted and fished around Newfoundland but no evidence indicates that they lived on the island for long periods of time and would only travel to Newfoundland temporarily. Inuit have been documented on the Great Northern Peninsula as late as the 18th century. Newfoundland was historically the southernmost part of the Inuit's territorial range.[24] The island of Newfoundland is known as Akami-assiss ("small land on the other side") in Innu,[25][26][27] as Kallunasillik ("in the process of having white people") in Inuttitut,[28] and as Ktaqmkuk ("across the waves") in Mi'kmaq.[29] When Europeans arrived from 1497 and later, starting with John Cabot, they established contact with the Beothuk. Estimates of the number of Beothuk on the island at this time vary, typically around 700.[30] Later both the English and French settled the island. They were followed by the Mi'kmaq, an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people from eastern Canada and present-day Nova Scotia. As European and Mi'kmaq settlement became year-round and expanded to new areas of the coast, the area available to the Beothuk to harvest the marine resources they relied upon was diminished. By the beginning of the 19th century, few Beothuk remained. Most died due to infectious diseases carried by Europeans, to which they had no immunity, and starvation.[31] Government attempts to engage with the Beothuk and aid them came too late.[31] The Beothuk did not have friendly relations with foreigners, unlike the Mi'kmaq. The latter readily traded with Europeans and became established in settlements in Newfoundland. European contact and settlement Newfoundland is the site of the only authenticated Norse settlement in North America.[32] An archaeological site was discovered in 1960 at L'Anse aux Meadows by Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad. This site was the subject of archaeological studies throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This research estimated that the settlement dates to about the year 1000, and the site contains the earliest-known European structures in North America. In 2021, an interdisciplinary team used the Miyake event of 993–994 as a benchmark in dendrochronology (tree-ring studies) to precisely determine that Vikings were present in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland in year 1021.[33] Designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it is believed to be the Vinland settlement of explorer Leif Erikson. (The Icelandic Skálholt map of 1570 refers to the area as "Promontorium Winlandiæ" and correctly shows it on a 51°N parallel with Bristol, England). Before and after the departure of the Norse, the island was inhabited by indigenous populations.[34] Exploration by Cabot Cabot Tower located in St John's About 500 years later, in 1497, the Italian navigator John Cabot (Zuan/Giovanni Caboto) became the first European since the Norse settlers to set foot on Newfoundland, working under commission of King Henry VII of England. His landing site is unknown but popularly believed to be Cape Bonavista, along the island's East coast.[35] Another site claimed is Cape Bauld, at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula. A document found in the Spanish National Archives, written by a Bristol merchant, reports that Cabot's crew landed 2,900 km (1,800 mi) west of Dursey Head, Ireland (latitude 51°35′N), which would put Cabot within sight of Cape Bauld. This document mentions an island that Cabot sailed past to go ashore on the mainland. This description fits with the Cape Bauld theory, as Belle Isle is not far offshore.[35] Other European explorers After Cabot, the first European visitors to Newfoundland were Portuguese, Spanish, Basque, French and English migratory fishermen. In 1501, Portuguese explorers Gaspar Corte-Real and his brother Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast of Newfoundland in a failed attempt to find the Northwest Passage. Late in the 17th century came Irish fishermen, who found so many fisheries that they named the island Talamh an Éisc, meaning 'Land of the Fish', more loosely 'the fishing grounds' in Irish.