Hebron is the name of a former Moravian mission that was the northernmost settlement in Labrador. Founded in 1831, the mission disbanded in 1959.

Early History

The Moravians began establishing missions in Labrador in 1771. The first was located at Nain. The Moravians sought to evangelize the Inuit people in Labrador.

In 1831, the Moravian church established a mission at Hebron, a site located about 200 kilometers north of Nain.

Life was hard at the settlement. Epidemics of whooping cough, influenza and smallpox ran through the community periodically. The 'flu epidemic of 1918 was believed to have wiped out a third of the 1,200-member Inuit population of Labrador [[1]].

By April, 1959, there were 58 families at Hebron.

Abandonment

In 1955, a member of the International Grenfell Association , an organization dedicated to the health and welfare of residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, wrote to the Canadian government expressing concern about cramped living conditions at Hebron that had lead to tuberculosis and a shortage of firewood.

After consultation with Moravian leaders, the decision was made to close the mission. The Inuit would be resettled into larger communities. "I see no other way than to suggest the Mission withdraw from Hebron this summer," said the Rev. Siegfried Hettasch [[2]]. The decision was announced at an Easter Monday service in 1959.

By the fall of that year, half of the families had moved on their own. The remainder left soon after the Grenfell nurse was withdrawn and the community store closed in the fall of 1959.

A report written for the Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples said the relocation led to poverty for several of the Inuit. "They were put in places where they weren't familiar with the local environment so they didn't know where to hunt, fish or trap and aside from that, all of the best places were already claimed by people who originally lived in those communities," said the report's author, Carol Brice-Bennet. [[3]]

Outside Links

• History of Labrador
• An article on Hebron that appeared in the Nunatsiaq News
• A Memorial University of Newfoundland article on the Inuit.