Of the three concentrations of French in Newfoundland only that of Port-au-Port can be considered indigenous. Its French and Acadian origins bear witness to what was once the French Shore and to the 19th century Acadian migrations. In spite of the anarchic circumstances of settlement and of the absence of any institutional autonomy or of close ties with the larger French-speaking world, the persistence of ethnic identity is assured until the 2nd World War. Thereafter the creation of a regional hierarchy and the passage from a household to a proletarian economy have dire cultural consequences. Minority status is assured, and massive assimilation results. However, c. 1970, this processus is challenged with the emergence of a small local élite, conscious of its ethnic specificity, and the intervention of a federal government concerned to ensure the survival of a pan-canadian francophonie. The resultant renaissance remains ambiguous because supported uniquely by the federal government and of interest only to the local élite.