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This study is an analysis of the changes in the social formations of the Inuit and Innut populations of northern Labrador as a consequence of interaction with Western capital, from approximately 1500 to the present. It is concluded that the significant changes which have taken place can only be explained'if they . are placed within a unified theoretical framework that combines both macro and micro levels of analysis. This requirement stems from the impact of the global nature of capital, and from the specific characteristics of the indigenous social formations in northern Labrador. To facilitate the analysis, the history of the penetration of capital into northern Labrador has been divided ioto political-economic periods: mercantile: 1500-1926, and welfare state: 1926-present. The former is further subdivided into two phases: the competitive phase: 1500-1763, during which no one European power held sway; and the monopoly phase, 1763-1926, during which either Britain or one of its colonies was jurally the sole European authority. Finally, the welfare period, 1916-present, which includes a transitional period, 1926-1942, is characterized by the increasing importance of wage labour and state agencies. Each of these periods is examined in terms of the internal and external relations between and amongst the European and native social formations which led to mutual modifications.