View source for Beothuk

{{Short description|Historical Indigenous people of Newfoundland}}
{{About|the ethnic group|their language|Beothuk language}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2025}}
{{Indigenous Peoples of Canada}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
[[File:Beothuk language map.png|thumb|[[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]], the historic home of the Beothuk]]

The '''Beothuk''' ({{IPAc-en|b|iː|ˈ|ɒ|t|ə|k}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|eɪ|.|ə|θ|ʊ|k}}; also spelled '''Beothuck''')<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/dictionary/#316 |title=Dictionary of Newfoundland English (also known by the Mikmaq as the Pi'tawkewaq = up river people, from the mikmaq word pi'tawasi = going up river) |publisher=Heritage.nf.ca |access-date=February 11, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mithun |first=Marianne |title=The Languages of Native North America |edition=First paperback |year=2001 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=0-521-23228-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ALnf3s2m7PkC&pg=PA368 368]}}</ref> were a group of [[Indigenous peoples in Canada|Indigenous people of Canada]] who lived on the island of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America |year=1997 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-509427-1 |pages=155, 290}}</ref>

The Beothuk culture formed around 1500 CE. This may have been the most recent cultural manifestation of peoples who first migrated from [[Labrador]] to present-day Newfoundland around 1 CE. The ancestors of this group had three earlier cultural phases, each lasting approximately 500 years.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|pp= [https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA7 7–10]}}

== Description ==
The Beothuk lived throughout the island of Newfoundland, mostly in the [[Notre Dame Bay|Notre Dame]] and [[Bonavista Bay]] areas. Estimates of the Beothuk population at the time of contact with Europeans vary. Historian of the Beothuk Ingeborg Marshall argued that European historical records of Beothuk history are clouded by [[ethnocentrism]] and unreliable.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA7 7]}} Scholars from the 19th and early 20th century estimated about 2,000 Beothuk individuals lived at the time of European contact in the 15th century;{{citation needed|date=January 2019}} however, there may have been no more than 500 to 700 people.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-distribution.php |title=Distribution and Size of the Beothuk Population, Leadership, and Communal Activities: A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk |access-date=November 11, 2017 |archive-date=December 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222123912/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-distribution.php |url-status=dead}}</ref> Based on the carrying capacity of the ecosystem at the time of contact the population is estimated to have been between 1,000 and 1,500.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=117}} They lived in independent, self-sufficient, extended family groups of 30 to 55 people.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA12 12]}}{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=117}}

Like many other [[hunter-gatherer]]s, they appear to have had band leaders but probably not more formal chiefs, in the anthropological definition of the word. They lived in conical dwellings known as ''mamateeks'', which were fortified for the winter season.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=117}} These were constructed by arranging poles in a circle, tying them at the top, and covering them with birch bark. The floors were dug with hollows used for sleeping. A fireplace was made at the centre.

During spring, the Beothuk used [[red ochre]] to paint not only their bodies but also their houses, [[canoe]]s, weapons, household appliances, and musical instruments. This practice led Europeans to refer to them as "Red Indians".<ref name="Are You Ready For Some Controversy? The History Of 'Redskin'">{{cite news |title=Are You Ready For Some Controversy? The History Of 'Redskin' |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/09/220654611/are-you-ready-for-some-controversy-the-history-of-redskin |work=[[NPRadio]] |date=September 9, 2013 |last1=Gandhi |first1=Lakshmi}}</ref>{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=117}} The use of ochre had great cultural significance. The decorating was done during an annual multi-day spring celebration. It designated tribal identity; for example, decorating newborn children was a way to welcome them into the tribe. Forbidding a person to wear ochre was a form of punishment.{{cn|date=June 2025}}

Their main food were [[caribou]], [[salmon]], and [[Pinniped|seals]], augmented by harvesting other animal and plant species. The Beothuk followed the seasonal migratory habits of their principal quarry. In the fall, they set up deer fences, sometimes {{cvt|30|–|40|mi|order=flip}} long, used to drive migrating caribou toward waiting hunters armed with bows and arrows.<ref name="newfoundland1969">{{cite journal |author=Anonymous (James McGregor) |year=1836 |title=Shaa-naan-dithit, or The Last of The Boëothics |url=https://www.mun.ca/rels/native/beothuk/mcgregor.html |url-status=dead |journal=Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country |volume=XIII |issue=LXXV |pages=316–323 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808194132/http://www.mun.ca/rels/native/beothuk/mcgregor.html |archive-date=August 8, 2016}} (Reprint, Toronto: Canadiana House, 1969)</ref>

The Beothuk are also known to have [[Sap#Human uses|made a pudding out of tree sap]]{{citation needed|date=October 2017|reason=Known by whom? Sap is not in the Cokinos2009 source.}} and the dried yolk of the eggs of the [[great auk]].<ref name="Cokinos2009">{{cite book |last=Cokinos |first=Christopher |title=Hope Is the Thing with Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GTxop5mgKKsC |year=2009 |publisher=Penguin Group USA |isbn=978-1-58542-722-2 |page=313}}</ref> They [[food preservation|preserved]] surplus food for use during winter, trapped various fur-bearing animals, and worked their skins for warm clothing. The fur side was worn next to the skin, to trap air against a person's body.

Beothuk canoes were made of caribou or seal skin, and the bows of canoes were stiffened with spruce bark. Canoes resembled [[kayak]]s and were said to be {{cvt|15|ft|order=flip}} in length and {{cvt|2+1/2|ft|order=flip}} in width with enough room to carry children, dogs, and property.<ref name="Newfoundland and Labrador Studies">{{cite journal |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/nflds/article/view/10104/10365 |first=John |last=Hewson |title=Santu's Song |journal=Memorial University |volume=22 |issue=1 |year=2007}}</ref>

The Beothuk followed elaborate burial practices. After wrapping the bodies in birch bark, they buried the dead in isolated locations. In one form, a shallow grave was covered with a rock pile. At other times they laid the body on a [[burial tree|scaffold]], or placed it in a burial box, with the knees folded. The survivors placed offerings at burial sites to accompany the dead, such as figurines, pendants, and replicas of tools.<ref name="newfoundland1969" />

== European exploration ==
[[File:Territoire des Beothuks.png|thumb|250px|Tribal territory of Beothuk]]

About 1000 CE, [[Norsemen|Norse]] explorers led by [[Leif Erikson]] encountered Indigenous people in northern Newfoundland, who may have been ancestors of the later Beothuk, or [[Dorset culture|Dorset]] inhabitants of Labrador and Newfoundland. The Norse called them ''[[skræling]]jar'' ("skraelings").<ref>{{cite book |last=Fagan |first=Brian M. |title=Ancient North America: the archaeology of a continent |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |year=2005 |isbn=0-500-28532-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientnorthamer0004faga}}</ref> Beginning in 1497, with the arrival of the Italian explorer [[John Cabot]], sailing under the auspices of [[Henry VII of England|King Henry VII]], waves of European explorers and settlers had more contacts.

Unlike some other Indigenous groups, the Beothuk tried to avoid contact with Europeans;{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=118}} they moved inland as European settlements grew. The Beothuk visited their former camps only to pick up metal objects. They would also collect any tools, shelters, and building materials left by the European fishermen who had dried and cured their catch before taking it to Europe at the end of the season.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=118}} Contact between Europeans and the Beothuk was usually negative for one side, with a few exceptions like [[John Guy (governor)|John Guy]]'s party in 1612. Settlers and the Beothuk competed for natural resources, such as salmon, seals, and birds. In the interior, fur trappers established traplines, disrupted the caribou hunts, and ransacked Beothuk stores, camps, and supplies. The Beothuk would steal traps to reuse the metals, and steal from the homes and shelters of European settlers and sometimes ambush them.<ref name="Upton">{{cite book |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=J. |chapter=The Extermination of the Beothucks of Newfoundland |last=Upton |first=L.F.S. |title=Sweet promises: a reader on Indian-white relations in Canada |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |location=Toronto |year=1991 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YUc-sAvji6QC&pg=PA68 68–89] |isbn=0-8020-6818-9 }}</ref> These encounters led to enmity and mutual violence.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=119–121}} With superior arms technology, the settlers generally had the upper hand in hunting and warfare. (Unlike other [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] peoples, the Beothuk appeared to have had no interest in adopting firearms.){{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA33 33]}}

Intermittently, Europeans attempted to improve relations with the Beothuk. Examples included expeditions by naval lieutenants [[George Cartwright (trader)|George Cartwright]] in 1768 and [[David Buchan]] in 1811. Cartwright's expedition was commissioned by Governor Hugh Palliser; he found no Beothuk, but brought back important cultural information.

Governor John Duckworth commissioned Buchan's expedition. Although undertaken for information gathering, this expedition ended in violence. Buchan's party encountered several Beothuk near [[Beothuk Lake]]. After an initially friendly reception, Buchan left two of his men behind with the Beothuk. The next day, he found them murdered and mutilated. According to the Beothuk Shanawdithit's later account, the marines were killed when one refused to give up his jacket and both ran away.<ref name = Upton />

== Causes of starvation ==
The Beothuks avoided Europeans in Newfoundland by moving inland from their traditional settlements. First, they emigrated to different coastal areas of Newfoundland, places the Europeans did not have fish-camps, but they were over-run. Then, they emigrated to inland Newfoundland.<ref>{{cite book |first=Margaret |last=Conrad |title=History of the Canadian Peoples |edition=5th |pages=256–257}}</ref> The Beothuks' main food sources were caribou, fish, and seals; their forced displacement deprived them of two of these. This led to the over-hunting of caribou, leading to a decrease in the caribou population in Newfoundland. The Beothuks emigrated from their traditional land and lifestyle into ecosystems unable to support them, causing under-nourishment and, eventually, starvation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-disappearance.php |title=Disappearance of the Beothuk |publisher=Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador |access-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907081020/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-disappearance.php |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/beo_extinction.html |title=Extinction of the Beothuk: Aboriginal Peoples: Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage |website=www.heritage.nf.ca |access-date=January 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006025555/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/beo_extinction.html |archive-date=October 6, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Extinction ==
Population estimates of Beothuks remaining at the end of the first decade of the 19th century vary widely, from about 150 up to 3,000.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA147 147]}} Information about the Beothuk was based on accounts by the woman [[Shanawdithit]], who told about the people who "wintered on the Exploits River or at Red Indian Lake and resorted to the coast in Notre Dame Bay". References in records also noted some survivors on the Northern Peninsula in the early 19th century.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA208 208]}}

During the colonial period, the Beothuk people allegedly endured territorial pressure from other Indigenous groups: Mi'kmaq migrants from [[Cape Breton Island]],<ref name="visit2013"/>{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=119}} and [[Inuit]] from Labrador. "The Beothuk were unable to procure sufficient subsistence within the areas left to them."<ref name="Kuch" /> It has been alleged that French bounties induced the Mi'kmaq to kill Beothuk. This is, however, disputed by most historians and has since come to be known as the "Mercenary Myth".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hillier |first1=Bernice |title=There's nothing to prove it, but Mi'kmaw mercenary myth persists, say researchers |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/mi-kmaw-mercenary-myth-colonial-history-school-textbooks-1.6073752 |access-date=September 5, 2022 |work=[[CBC News]] |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] |date=June 21, 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=115–116}}

Beothuk numbers dwindled rapidly due to a combination of factors, including:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mun.ca/relstudies/ |title=Department of Religious Studies |website=[[Memorial University of Newfoundland]] |language=en-CA |access-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-date=April 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410121756/http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/acampbell/pla/PLA07.HTM |url-status=live}}</ref>
* loss of access to important food sources, from the competition with and displacement by European settlers;
* infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, such as [[smallpox]], introduced by European contact;
* [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] [[tuberculosis]] (TB), which weakened tribal members;
* violent encounters with trappers and settlers.

By 1829, with the death of Shanawdithit, the people were declared extinct.<ref name="newfoundland1969" />{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=87}}

=== Claims of Modern Survivors ===

Oral histories suggest a few Beothuk survived around the region of the [[Exploits River]], [[Twillingate]], Newfoundland and Labrador; and formed unions with European colonists, Inuit and Mi'kmaq.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA224 224–226]}} Some families from Twillingate claim descent from the Beothuk people of the early 19th century.

In 1910, a 75-year-old Indigenous woman named Santu Toney claimed she was the daughter of a Mi'kmaq mother and a Beothuk father. She recorded a song in the Beothuk language for the American [[anthropologist]] [[Frank Speck]]. He was conducting field studies in the area. She said her father taught her the song.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hewson |first1=John |last2=Diamond |first2=Beverley |date=January 2007 |title=Santu's Song |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NFLDS/article/view/10104/10366 |url-status=dead |journal=Newfoundland and Labrador Studies |publisher=Memorial University's Faculty of Arts |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=227–257 |issn=1715-1430 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405033724/https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NFLDS/article/view/10104/10366 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |access-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref>

Since Santu Toney was born about 1835, this may be evidence some Beothuk people survived beyond the death of Shanawdithit in 1829. Contemporary researchers tried to transcribe the song, as well as improve the recording by current methods. Native groups learned the song to use in celebrations of tradition.<ref name="Perry">{{cite news |url=http://www.lportepilot.ca/News/2008-09-10/article-1423205/Santus-Song/1 |last=Perry |first=S.J. |title=Santu's Song: Memorable day for Beothuk Interpretation Centre |work=Porte Pilot |date=September 10, 2008 |access-date=January 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309041803/http://www.lportepilot.ca/News/2008-09-10/article-1423205/Santus-Song/1 |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Claims of Genocide ===

Scholars disagree in their definition of "[[genocide]]" in relation to the Beothuk.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002110956 |last=Rubinstein |first=W.D. |title=Genocide and Historical Debate: William D. Rubinstein Ascribes the Bitterness of Historians' Arguments to the Lack of an Agreed Definition and to Political Agendas |journal=History Today |volume=54 |year=2004 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-date=January 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131211914/http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002110956 |url-status=dead}}</ref> While some scholars believe that the Beothuk died out as an unintended consequence of European colonization, others argue that Europeans conducted a sustained campaign of genocide against them.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Richard Paul |last1=Knowles |title=Modern Drama: Defining the Field |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=2003 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dqTz89_fFjgC&pg=PA169 169] |isbn=978-0-8020-8621-1 |last2=Tompkins |first2=Joanne |last3=Worthen |first3=William B.}}</ref> 

Writing in 1766, Governor [[Hugh Palliser]] reported to the British secretary of state that "''the barbarous system of killing prevails amongst our people towards the Native Indians — whom our People always kill, when they can meet them''".{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=87}} {{better source needed|date=January 2025}}

If such a campaign did occur, it was explicitly without official sanction after 1769, any such action thereafter being in violation of Governor [[John Byron]]'s proclamation that "''I do strictly enjoin and require all His Majesty's subjects to live in amity and brotherly kindness with the native savages'' [Beothuk] ''of the said island of Newfoundland''",<ref name="visit2013">{{cite web |url=http://visitnewfoundland.ca/beothuk.html |title=The Beothuk of Newfoundland |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=January 5, 2013 |website=visitnewfoundland.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130108130959/http://visitnewfoundland.ca/beothuk.html |archive-date=January 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013}}</ref> as well as the subsequent Proclamation issued by Governor [[John Holloway (Royal Navy officer)|John Holloway]] on July 30, 1807, which prohibited mistreatment of the Beothuk and offered a reward for any information on such mistreatment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/naval-john-holloway.php |title=Holloway, John (1744–1826) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date = August 2000 |website=Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website |access-date= December 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405234723/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/naval-john-holloway.php |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> 

Adhikari comments how the intentional nature of the destructive violence from colonizers is part of the evidence that makes this a case of genocide.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=129–130}} Harring draws parallels between the genocidal violence inflicted upon the Beothuk and the [[Black War|genocidal violence]] inflicted upon the [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]],{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=85}} and that the government's knowledge of such violence while not actively preventing and stopping it implies a tacit approval of the violence.{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=85}}

Adhikari collects various accounts of mass violence conducted by Europeans against the Beothuk, the most infamous of which is a raid that occurred in winter 1789.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=123–126}} This was led by [[John Peyton (fisherman)|John Peyton Sr.]], who was involved in many acts of violence against the Beothuk.<ref>{{cite DCB |ID=3069 |name=Peyton, John |last=Handcock |first=W. Gordon |volume=6}}</ref> Peyton along with two others fired upon a band of 50 Beothuk with buckshot, killing many while injuring all others, beyond some injured individuals who were physically beaten to death after being shot, any others were left to die from their injuries or freeze to death.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=125–126}}{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=86}} {{dubious|date=January 2025}}

== Notable Beothuk captives ==
Several Beothuk were captured by settlers from the [[Newfoundland Colony]] during the early 19th century.

=== Demasduit ===
[[File:Demasduit.jpg|thumb|upright|Demasduit, 1819]]
{{Main|Demasduit}}

Demasduit was a Beothuk woman, about 23 years old at the time she was captured by a party led by the fisherman John Peyton Sr. near Beothuk Lake in March 1819.<ref name="Griffin">{{cite news |last=Griffin |first=Kevin |date=March 3, 2019 |title=Beothuk 'genocide' remembered 200 years after kidnapping and murder |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/beothuk-genocide-remembered-200-years-after-kidnapping-and-murder |work=[[The Vancouver Sun]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009140236/https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/beothuk-genocide-remembered-200-years-after-kidnapping-and-murder |archive-date=October 9, 2022}}</ref>

The governor of the Newfoundland Colony was seeking to encourage trade and end hostilities with the Beothuk. He approved an expedition, to be led by the Scottish explorer [[David Buchan]], to recover a boat and other fishing gear foraged by the Beothuk. Buchan was accompanied by two soldiers; the Beothuk mistakenly thought Buchan had hostile intentions and killed and decapitated the soldiers accompanying him.

In 1819, an armed party led by Peyton Sr, totaling about nine men (including Peyton Jr.), came upon a Beothuk camp looking for stolen fishing gear. The Beothuk scattered, although Demasduit was unable to escape and begged for mercy, exposing her breasts to show she was a nursing mother with child. Her husband, [[Nonosabasut]], confronted Peyton Sr. and his party, attempting to negotiate for the release of his wife. Peyton Sr. refused and a scuffle broke out between him and Nonosabasut, resulting in the death of the latter.<ref name="Griffin"/> Peyton Sr. and his party took Demasduit to Twillingate, with her baby dying before they reached the settlement.<ref name="Griffin"/>

The settlers at the Newfound Colony named Demasduit ''Mary March'' after the month she was taken. Government agents took her to [[St. John's, Newfoundland]]. The colonial government hoped to make Demasduit comfortable while she was living in the colony so she might be a bridge between them and the Beothuk. Demasduit learned some [[English language|English]], and taught the settlers about 200 words of the Beothuk language. In January 1820, Demasduit was released to rejoin her people, but she died of [[tuberculosis]] on the voyage to Notre Dame Bay.

=== Shanawdithit ===
[[File:Shanawdithit (Boyd's Cove, NL) crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Shanawdithit in [[Boyd's Cove]]]]
{{Main|Shanawdithit}}

[[Shanawdithit]] was Demasduit's niece and the last known full-blooded Beothuk. In April 1823, she was in her early twenties. She, her mother, and sister sought food and help from a white [[trapper]], as they were starving. The three were taken to St. John's, but her mother and sister died of tuberculosis, an epidemic among the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]]. Called ''Nancy April'' by the settlers, Shanawdithit lived for several years in the home of John Peyton Jr. as a servant.

The explorer [[William Cormack]] founded the Beothuk Institute in 1827 to foster friendly dealings with the Beothuk and support their culture. His expeditions found Beothuk [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] but he also learned the society was dying out. Learning of Shanawdithit, in the winter 1828–1829, Cormack brought her to his centre so he could learn from her.<ref name="Howley">[https://www.mun.ca/rels/native/beothuk/beo2gifs/texts/shana2.html James P. Howley, F.G.S., "Drawings by Shanawdithit"], ''The Beothucks or Red Indians: The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland'', Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1915, Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador Website</ref> He drew funds from his institute to pay for her support.

Shanawdithit made ten drawings for Cormack, some of which showed parts of the island, and others illustrated Beothuk implements and dwellings, along with Beothuk notions and myths.<ref name="Howley" /> As she explained her drawings, she taught Cormack Beothuk vocabulary. She told him there were far fewer Beothuk than twenty years previously. To her knowledge, at the time she was taken, only a dozen Beothuk survived.<ref name="Howley" /> Despite medical care from the doctor [[William Carson]], Shanawdithit died of tuberculosis in St. John's on June 6, 1829. At the time, there was no European cure for the disease.

== Archaeology ==
{{Tone|section|date=July 2023}}
[[File:Carlb-beothuk-museum-2002.jpg|thumb|left|The Beothuk tribe of Newfoundland is extinct as a cultural group. It is represented in museum, historical and archaeological records.]]

The area around eastern Notre Dame Bay, on the northeast coast of Newfoundland, contains numerous archeological sites containing material from Indigenous cultures. One of these is the [[Boyd's Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador|Boyd's Cove]] site. At the foot of a bay, it is protected by a maze of islands sheltering it from waves and winds. The site was found in 1981 during an [[archeological]] survey to locate Beothuk sites to study their artifacts for insight into Beothuk culture.

Records and information were limited, therefore some questions about the people could not be answered because few record-keeping Europeans contacted the Beothuk. By contrast, peoples such as the [[Wyandot people|Huron]] or the Mi'kmaq interacted with the French [[missionaries]], who studied and taught them and had extensive trade with French, Dutch, and English merchants - all of whom made records of their encounters.

There are references that document Beothuk presence in the region of Notre Dame Bay in the last half of the 18th and early part of the 19th century.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=120}} Previous archaeological surveys and amateur finds indicate it was likely the Beothuk lived in the area prior to European encounter. Eastern Notre Dame Bay is rich in animal and fish life: seals, fish, and seabirds, and its hinterland supported large caribou herds.

Archaeologists found sixteen Indigenous sites, ranging in age from the [[Maritime Archaic]] era (7000 BC – modern) through the [[Palaeo-Eskimo]] period, down to the Recent Indigenous (including the Beothuk) occupation. Two of the sites are associated with the historical Beothuk. Boyd's Cove, the larger of the two, is {{cvt|3000|m2}} and is on top of a {{cvt|6|m}} glacial [[moraine]]. The coarse sand, gravel, and boulders were left behind by [[glacier]]s.

The artifacts provide answers to an economic question: why did the Beothuk avoid Europeans? The interiors of four houses and their environs produced some 1,157 [[nail (fastener)|nails]], the majority of which were forged by the Beothuk. The site's occupants manufactured some sixty-seven projectile points (most made from nails and bones). They modified nails to use as what are believed to be [[Scraper (archaeology)|scrapers]] to remove fat from animal hides, they straightened fish hooks and adapted them as awls, they fashioned lead into ornaments, and so on. In summary, the Boyd's Cove Beothuk took debris from an early modern European [[fishery]] and fashioned materials.

=== Important archaeological sites ===
Source:<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Renouf |first=M. A. P. |date=1999 |title=Prehistory of Newfoundland Hunter-Gatherers: Extinctions or Adaptations? |journal=Arctic Archaeology |volume=30 |issue=3 |page=405 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Holly |first=Donald |date=2010 |title=The Ties that Bind and Divide |journal=Journal of the North Atlantic |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=31–44 |doi=10.3721/037.003.0101 |s2cid=162572596 }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|Uncalibrated Carbon Date (in years Before Present)
|Site name
|Reference
|Location
|-
|4900 土 230
|Beaches
|<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sanger |first=C.W. |date=1977 |title=The evolution of sealing and the spread of settlement in northeastern Newfoundland |journal=Social and Economic Papers|publisher= St. John's: Institute for Social and Economic Research |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=136}}</ref>
|In the center of Bonavista Bay.
|-
|4540 土 135
|Cape Cove I
|<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Austin |first=S.J. |date=1980 |title=Newfoundland: Prehistoric Cultures |journal=Masters Thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland |pages=5–7 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Austin |first=S.J. |date=1984 |title=Maritime Archaic and Recent Indian evidence from Cape Cove Beach, Newfoundland |journal=Maritime Archaic and Recent Indian Evidence from Cape Cove Beach, Newfoundland |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=2 }}</ref>
|On the East of Newfoundland North of Bonavista Bay.
|-
|3410 土 100
|Port au Choix cemetery
|<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Tuck |first=A.J. |date=1978 |title=Excavations at Cow Head |journal=Newfoundland Social and Economic Studies |volume=17 |issue=1 }}</ref>
|On the Northern Peninsula on the coast of the Bay of Lawrence around Port au Choix.
|-
|3270 土 50
|Gould Site
|<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Renouf |first=M.A.P. |date=1998 |title=Searching for the Maritime Archaic Indian habitation site at Port au Choix, Newfoundland: an integrated approach using archaeology, geomorphology and sea level history |journal=Culture and Heritage Division, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's |volume=1 |issue=1 }}</ref>
|On the Northern Peninsula on the coast of the Bay of Lawrence around Port au Choix.
|}
Groswater Palaeoeskimo
{| class="wikitable"
|2845 土 120
|Cow Head site 1
|<ref name=":2" />
|On the Northern Peninsula on the coast of the Bay of Lawrence South Port au Choix.
|-
|2805 土 130
|Cow Head site 2
|<ref name=":2" />
|[see Cow Head site 1]
|-
|2760 土 90
|Phillip's Garden East
|<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Renouf |first=M.A.P. |date=1994 |title=Two transitional sites at Port au Choix, northwestern Newfoundland. In Threads of Arctic Prehistory |journal=Papers in Honour of W.E. Taylor, Jr. |pages=165–195 }}</ref>
|[See Phillip's Garden 1]
|-
|2700 土 140
|Factory Cove
|<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Auger |date=1984 |title=Factory cove: recognition and definition of the early palaeo-eskimo period in Newfoundland |journal=Masters Thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's}}</ref>
|[see Cow Head site 1]
|-
|2090 土 70
|Phillip's Garden West 1
|<ref name=":3" />
|[See Phillip's Garden 1]
|-
|1960 土 80
|Phillip's Garden West 2
|<ref name=":3" />
|[See Phillip's Garden 1]
|}
Dorset Paleoeskimo
{| class="wikitable"
|2140 土 100
|Phillip's Garden 1
|<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Renouf |first=M.A.P. |date=1987 |title=Archaeological investigations at the Port au Choix National Historic Park: report of 1986 field activities |journal=Report on File at Archaeology Division, Parks Canada, Atlantic Region, Halifax}}</ref>
|On the Northern Peninsula on the coast of the Bay of Lawrence around Port au Choix.
|-
|1970 土 60
|Phillip's Garden 2
|<ref name=":4" />
|[See Phillip's Garden 1]
|-
|1890 土 90
|Phillip's Garden 3
|<ref name=":4" />
|[See Phillip's Garden 1]
|-
|1280 土 60
|Stock Cove 1
|<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Robins |first=D.T. |date=1985 |title=Stock Cove, Trinity Bay: the Dorset Eskimo occupation of Newfoundland from a southeastern perspective |journal=Master's Thesis. Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland}}</ref>
|In Trinity Bay on the base of the Avalon Peninsula.
|-
|1280 土 60
|Stock Cove 2
|<ref name=":5" />
|[See Stock Cove 1]
|}
Recent
{| class="wikitable"
|1995 土 90
|Cows Head Site 1
|<ref name=":2" />
|[See Stock Cove 1]
|-
|1774 土 100
|Cape Freels
|<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carignan |date=1977 |title=Beothuck Archaeology in Bonavista Bay |journal=Mercury Series, 69. Archaeological Survey of Canada, National Museums of Canada, Ottawa}}</ref>
|On the east of Newfoundland North of Bonavista Bay.
|-
|1695 土 110
|Cows Head Site 2
|<ref name=":2" />
|[See Stock Cove 1]
|-
|830 土 100
|Sampson Head Cove
|<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thomson |date=1990 |title=Report of a terrestrial archaeological survey and an underwater reconnaissance of Great Mosquito Cove, Bull Arm, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland |journal=Report on File at the Provincial Archaeology Office, Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, NL, Canada }}</ref>
|Halfway between Frenchmans Island and Stock Cove.
|}

=== Trends in findings across Beothuk archaeological sites ===
All Beothuk sites of note are in coastal areas, implying that prior to European settlement most Indigenous settlements were along the coast. This adds evidence to the claim that the Beothuk were cut off from their food sources which led to many of them starving to death as they were pushed inland.<ref name=":0" /> Many sites consist of the same elements because they are all former occupational sites. These sites show a variety of material culture based on what period they are from however most contain the remains of animals, remainders of permanent and semipermanent structures such as remains of fire pits and sleeping hollows.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Several sites, such as Sampson's Head Cove, had wooden and bone tools as well as stone arrowheads.<ref name=":1" /> There have also been instances of stone jewelry found at residential sites. Several people have claimed to have uncovered Beothuk burials; however, these are not substantiated by much evidence of this.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Harries |first=John |title=Human Remains in Society: Curation and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Genocide and Mass-violence |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |pages=221–248}}</ref> Additionally, many cases of Beothuk remains may have been true at one point but because of mishandling the remains are now lost and unable to be verified.<ref name=":6" /> A prime example of this is a picture of what was said to be a mummified Beothuk child, which was lost by the Newfoundland Museum that it was held in due to the fact that the museum shared a building with a post office. In the early 1900s the child's remains, as well as the remains of an adult Beothuk and a number of other Beothuk artifacts, were put in storage by the post office and then subsequently lost. Additionally all images of this were subsequently lost once again due to neglect leaving nothing but first hand accounts to even confirm the existence of the remains and artifacts, leaving them entirely to the public imagination.<ref name=":6" /> Other accounts confirm that this is fairly normal for Beothuk remains.<ref name=":6" />

== Genetics ==
In 2007, DNA testing was conducted on material from the teeth of [[Demasduit]] and her husband [[Nonosabasut]], two Beothuk individuals buried in the 1820s. The results assigned them to [[Haplogroup X (mtDNA)]] and [[Haplogroup C (mtDNA)]], respectively, which are also found in current [[Mi'kmaq]] populations in Newfoundland. DNA research indicates they were solely of [[First Nations in Canada|First Nation]] [[indigenous peoples|Indigenous]] maternal ancestry, unlike some earlier studies suggesting an Indigenous/European hybrid.<ref name="Kuch">{{cite journal | url=http://www.sjdimond.us/document/2007_Extinct%20Beothuk.pdf |last=Kuch |first=M |year=2007 |title = A preliminary analysis of the DNA and diet of the extinct Beothuk: A systematic approach to ancient human DNA |journal =American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=594–604 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.20536 |display-authors=etal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214202135/http://www.sjdimond.us/document/2007_Extinct%20Beothuk.pdf |archive-date=February 14, 2015 |url-status=dead |pmid=17205549}}</ref> However, a 2011 analysis showed although the two Beothuk and living Mi'kmaq occur in the same [[haplogroups]], [[Single-nucleotide polymorphism|SNP]] differences between Beothuk and Mi'kmaq individuals indicate they were dissimilar within those groups, and a 'close-relationship' theory was not supported.<ref name="Pope">{{cite journal |url=https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Pope,_Carr,_Smith,_&_Marshall_2011_Genome_54,110.pdf |last=Pope |first=A |year = 2011 |title=Mitogenomic and microsatellite variation in descendants of the founder population of Newfoundland: high genetic diversity in an historically isolated population |journal=Genome |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=110–119 |doi=10.1139/g10-102 |pmid=21326367}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last1=Adhikari |first1=Mohamed |author-link=Mohamed Adhikari |date=2023 |chapter='Now We Are Natives': The Genocide of the Beothuk People and the Politics of 'Extinction' in Newfoundland |title=Genocide and Mass Violence in the Age of Extremes |editor1-first=Frank |editor1-last=Jacob |editor2-first=Martin |editor2-last=Göllnitz |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |pages=115–136 |doi=10.1515/9783110781328 |isbn=978-3-11-078132-8 |issn=2626-6490}}
* {{cite journal |last=Cormier |first=Paul Nicolas |title=British Colonialism and Indigenous Peoples: The Law of Resistance–Response–Change |journal=[[Peace Research]] |volume=49 |number=2 |date=2017 |pages=39–60 |jstor=44779906}}
* {{cite book |last=Harring |first=Sidney L. |date=2021 |chapter= 'Shooting a Black Duck': Genocidal Settler Violence against Indigenous Peoples and the Creation of Canada |title=Civilian-Driven Violence and the Genocide of Indigenous Peoples in Settler Societies |editor1-last=Adhikari |editor1-first=Mohamed |editor1-link=Mohamed Adhikari |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-003-01555-0 |pages=82–109}}
* {{cite book |last=Marshall |first=I. |year=1996 |title=A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] | isbn=0-7735-1390-6}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* Brown, Robert Craig, ''Reminiscences of James P. Howley: Selected Years.'' Toronto: Champlain Society Publications, 1997.{{ISBN?}}
* Hewson, John. "Beothuk and Algonkian: Evidence Old and New", ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', Vol. 34, No. 2 (April 1968), pp.&nbsp;85–93.
* Holly, Donald H. Jr. "A Historiography of an Ahistoricity: On the Beothuk Indians", ''History and Anthropology'', 2003, Vol. 14(2), pp.&nbsp;127–140.
* Holly, Donald H. Jr. "The Beothuk on the eve of their extinction", ''Arctic Anthropology'', 2000, Vol. 37(1), pp.&nbsp;79–95.
* Howley, James P., ''The Beothucks or Red Indians'', Cambridge University Press, 1918. Reprint: Prospero Books, Toronto. (2000). {{ISBN|1-55267-139-9}}.
* {{cite book | last = Marshall| first = I | title = The Beothuk | publisher = Breakwater Books | year = 2001–2009 | isbn = 1-55081-258-0 }}
* Pastore, Ralph T., ''Shanawdithit's People: The Archaeology of the Beothuks''. Breakwater Books, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1992. {{ISBN|0-929048-02-4}}.
* Renouf, M.A.P. "Prehistory of Newfoundland hunter-gatherers: extinctions or adaptations?" ''World Archaeology'', Vol. 30(3): pp.&nbsp;403–420 ''Arctic Archaeology'' 1999.
* Such, Peter, ''Vanished Peoples: The Archaic Dorset & Beothuk People of Newfoundland''. NC Press, Toronto, 1978.{{ISBN?}}
* 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.{{ISBN?}}
* Winter, Keith John, ''Shananditti: The Last of the Beothuks''. J.J. Douglas Ltd., North Vancouver, B.C., 1975. {{ISBN|0-88894-086-6}}.
* Assiniwi, Bernard, "La saga des Béothuks". Babel, LEMÉAC, 1996. {{ISBN|2-7609-2018-6}}

== External links ==
{{Portal|Canada}}
{{Commons category|Beothuk}}
* [https://archive.today/20130120204552/http://www.heritage.nl.ca/aboriginal/beothuk.html The Beothuks], Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage.
* [http://www.native-languages.org/beothuk.htm Beothuk], Native Languages.
* [http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/mary-march/index.html Ideas on CBC program about Demasduwit]

{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}
{{Pre-Columbian}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Beothuk| ]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Atlantic Canada]]
[[Category:Algonquian peoples]]
[[Category:First Nations in Atlantic Canada]]
[[Category:Culture of Newfoundland and Labrador]]
[[Category:History of Newfoundland and Labrador]]
[[Category:Extinct Indigenous peoples of the Americas]]