Beothuk
|
Newfoundland, home of the Beothuk |
The
Beothuk (
IPA /biˈÉ'θʊk/) were the native inhabitants of the island of
Newfoundland at the time of
European contact in the
15th and
16th centuries. They became extinct as a separate ethnic group in
1829.
Beothuk means "people" in the
Beothuk language. The origins of the Beothuk are uncertain, but it appears that they were an
Algonquian group who displaced a
Dorset culture on Newfoundland around 1000 CE. The Beothuk culture appears to be the last cultural manifestation, beginning around 1500 CE, of a group that entered the island of Newfoundland from
Labrador around 1 CE and went through three previous cultural phases lasting approximately 500 years each.
[Marshall, Ingeborg, The Beothuk, p.7-10]The Beothuk lived throughout the island of Newfoundland, particularly in the Notre Dame Bay and Bonavista Bay areas. Estimates on the number of Beothuks on the island at the time of contact with Europeans vary; recent scholarship suggests that there were no more than 500 to 700 people, who lived in independent, self-sufficient groups of 30 to 55.
[Marshall, Ingeborg, The Beothuk, p.12] They appear to have had band leaders but probably not "chiefs" in the usual sense.
The Beothuk painted their bodies with
red ochre, leading Europeans to refer to them as "Red Indians". This ochring had great cultural significance, and took place in a multi-day spring celebration. It designated tribal identity, for example, welcoming newborn children into the tribe; on the other hand, being forbidden to wear ochre was a form of punishment.
Their main sources of food were caribou, salmon, and seals, augmented by the harvesting of other animal and plant species. The seasonal migratory habits of their principal quarry gave rise to similar movements on the part of the Beothuk. In the fall, they set up fences which were used to drive migrating
caribou towards waiting hunters armed with bows and arrows. They
preserved any surplus food for later use during winter.
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The Beothuk tribe of Newfoundland is extinct, remembered only in museum, historical and archaeological records |
The Beothuk followed elaborate burial practices. The dead were usually buried in isolated locations. Bodies were wrapped in birch bark and covered with a rock pile, laid on a scaffold, or placed in a burial box with the knees folded. Burial places were furnished with offerings such as figurines, pendants, and replicas of tools.
It is possible that the natives encountered in northern Newfoundland by the
Norse around 1000 CE and referred to as
Skrælingar ("skraelings") were ancestors of the Beothuk or Dorset inhabitants of
Labrador and Newfoundland. Later waves of European arrivals, beginning in
1497 with the Italian
John Cabot, sailing under the auspices of the British crown, led to contact with the Beothuk being established.
In contrast with some other native groups, the Beothuk strove to avoid contact with Europeans, and moved inland as European settlements grew, only visiting camps during early contact to pick up metals and other items left behind when Europeans left for the winter. Contact between Europeans and the Beothuk was generally negative for one side or the other, with a few exceptions, such as that of
John Guy's party in
1612. Settlers and Beothuk came to compete for important natural resources such as salmon and seals, and these encounters led to enmity and mutual violence. The settlers, with superior technology, generally had the upper hand in both hunting and warfare. (For reasons that are unclear, the Beothuk had no interest in adopting firearms.)
[Marshall, Ingeborg, The Beothuk, p.33] The Europeans certainly exhibited callous behaviour toward the natives, but the Beothuk for their part seem to have had a strong cultural imperative toward revenge that also caused them to carry out apparently pointless attacks. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, several Newfoundland governors tried to improve relations, to little positive effect.
Beothuk numbers had dwindled to 400 by
1768, and by 1829, with the death of Shanawdithit, they were officially extinct, through a combination of factors:
*small initial population
*loss of access to important food sources
*diseases, such as
tuberculosis, introduced by Europeans
*violent encounters with settlers
Relations with the
Mi'kmaq, a native group who arrived in Newfoundland during the colonial period, and with the Labrador
Inuit, were hostile but did not often descend into violence. Relations with the
Innu were marked by avoidance more than anything else.
Oral histories assert that a few Beothuk might have survived around the region of the
Exploits River and
Twillingate for some years after they were "officially extinct." One family history records that a "full-blood" Beothuk woman, known as "Elizabeth," gave birth to Susannah Moody at Lewisporte, near the mouth of the Exploits River, on
January 14,
1832. "Elizabeth" is said to have come "gliding in from the woods" at times to see her baby daughter. Susannah married Samuel Anstey, and had several children, many of whose descendants still live in and around Twillingate. Susannah died in 1911.
In
1910, a 75-year old Native woman named Santu, the daughter of a
Micmac mother and a Beothuk father, sang a song (
heard here) in the
Beothuk language for the American anthropologist Frank Speck while she was on her way to
Nova Scotia and down to
New England.
Demasduit was a Beothuk woman, thought to be about 23 years old, who was captured near Red Indian Lake in March 1819 by a party led by John Peyton, Sr., a salmon fisherman notorious for his hostility toward the Beothuk. This expedition was approved by the Newfoundland governor, who had been convinced by Peyton that this would encourage trade, and earned Peyton a bounty. During the capture, Demasduit's husband and brother were killed, and her newborn baby died a couple of days later. She was named Mary March (following the custom of naming captives after the month in which they were taken) and brought to Twillingate and later St. John's. She learned some English and was able to provide about 200 words of Beothuk vocabulary. In January 1820, during a trip back to Notre Dame Bay intended to return Demasduit to her people, she died of tuberculosis.
Shanawdithit was the last known Beothuk. She was captured in April 1823, when in her early 20s, and lived for several years in the home of John Peyton, Jr. (where she was known as Nancy April), working as a servant. Meanwhile,
William Cormack had founded the
Boeothick Institute in order to foster a positive relationship with the Beothuk, and study and support their culture. However, his expeditions found Beothuk artifacts but concluded that the group was dying out. For this reason, Shanawdithit was brought to St. John's in 1828 in order to help Cormack with what remained of his project. She provided Cormack with drawings illustrating Beothuk implements, concepts, and mythologies, and augmented the knowledge of Beothuk words. She was also able to outline the numerical decline of the Beothuk over the previous two decades, testifying that at the time of her capture, only about a dozen remained. Despite medical care from Dr.
William Carson, Shanawdithit died of tuberculosis on June 6, 1829.
*Howley, James P.,
The Beothucks or Red Indians, 1918. First published by Cambridge University Press. Reprint: Prospero Books, Toronto. (2000). ISBN 1-55267-139-9.
*Marshall, Ingeborg,
A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal & Kingston, 1996. ISBN 0-7735-1390-6. (This is an excellent up-to-date and detailed examination of what is known about the Beothuks)
*Marshall, Ingeborg,
The Beothuk. The Newfoundland Historical Society, 2001.
*Pastore, Ralph T.,
Shanawdithit's People: The Archaelogy of the Beothuks. Breakwater Books, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1992. ISBN 0-929048-02-4.
Ralph T. Pastore, historian and archaeologist, late of
Memorial University of Newfoundland, discovered the
Boyd's Cove Beothuk settlement.
*Such, Peter,
Vanished Peoples: The Archaic Dorset & Beothuk People of Newfoundland. NC Press, Toronto, 1978.
*Tuck, James A.,
Ancient People of Port au Choix: The Excavation of an Archaic Indian Cemetery in Newfoundland. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1994.
*Winter, Keith John,
Shananditti: The Last of the Beothuks. J.J. Douglas Ltd., North Vancouver, B.C., 1975. ISBN 0-88894-086-6.
*
Crummey, Michael,
River Thieves, Random House, 2002. ISBN 978-0-385-65817-1. This novel explores the tragic encounter of the Beothuk, settlers, and the military in central Newfoundland in the early 1800s.
*
The Beothuk of Newfoundland, contains the London Times obituary of Shanawdithit, the last Beothuk.
*
Stories of Musical Memories: A Song from the Beothuk*
The Beothuks,
Newfoundland government site
