Native occupation of Newfoundland goes back approximately five thousand years. The earliest inhabitants, referred to as the Maritime Archaic Indians, came to the island from the Labrador coast, where they had lived for several milleniu, around 3000 BC and either died out or left the island around They were followed by the Early and Late Palaeo-Eskimo populations, whose occupation lasted from roughly 1050 BC to AD 950, though the evidence suggests that they were in decline from about AD 550 on.

It is generally accepted that around 50 BC, a second Indian population migrated across the Strait of Belle Isle...

By the 1580s it was thought that the fishery, by then profitable and important for the British economy, could be improved and stabilized by establishing settlements in Newfoundland. Such outposts would permit English dominance over the best fishing grounds and at the same time constitute a base from which the search for a northwest passage to the Orient could be pursued.

One of the promoters of settlement, Anthony Parkhurst, accompanied his fishing ships several times between 1575 and 1578 to investigate Newfoundland’s resources.¹ In his report Parkhurst made no mention of native inhabitants, probably because he explored only those areas...

In the course of the seventeenth century Beothuk not only had to adjust to roads on their traditional territory by white fishing crews and colanist/settlers they also had to contend with hostilities and encroachment by native neighbours. Micmac groups increasingly hunted and trapped on the west and south coast of Newfoundland, Inuit adversaries came across the Strait of Belle Isle to Petit Nord and Notre Dame Bay, and Montagnais hunters began to exploit resource on the Northern Peninsula. English and French records from the early historic period seldom mention relations between ethnic groups. However, some clues can be extrapolated from...

During the first half of the eighteenth century the relatively peaceful coexistence between English settlers and Beothuk came to an end. The Avalon Peninsula became more widely settled by English colonists and was to remain a stronghold of the English fishery. In the course of Anglo-French conflicts in the 1690s, French forces and their Indian allies advanced overland from Placentia to Trinity Bay in order to attack English settlements. Since the Beothuk’s portage path from Come by Chance to Bull Arm was the most convenient route, the French are likely to have carried their boats across on this path and...

From fall to spring terrestrial mammals were the Beothuk’s main food resource. For those bands that intercepted the large migrating caribou herds that passed across the Exploits River and Red Indian Lake and who wintered there, preserved caribou meat constituted the bulk of their winter diet. Small fur bearers, seal, migratory and overwintering birds, and lake fish would have supplemented caribou.¹ Beothuk bands that remained, during the winter season, closer to the coast where caribou passed in smaller numbers relied to a greater extent on seal, bear, beaver, and other small mammals.² While Newfoundland’s resources wereplentiful, the sizes of animal...

The first governor to act upon his concern for the welfare of the native people in Newfoundland and Labrador was Hugh Palliser (1764-68).¹ Labrador had come under English government with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, and resolving interference in the fishery due to conflicts with Inuit had become the responsibility of the Newfoundland governor. After meeting with Inuit at Pitts Harbour in 1765 (see chapter 3), Palliser had ordered fishing crews on the Labrador coast to treat the native people with civility and fairness.² In 1768, after numerous accounts of cruel and inhumane treatment of the native population in...

In the first two to three decades of the eighteenth century, the Beothuk faced increased competition from the English for access to salmon and fur-bearing animals. This resulted in hostile acts on both sides and in killings of Beothuk and of English salmon catchers and furriers. Following these clashes the Beothuk retreated for a time from areas that were frequented by the English. However, in the early 1760s they again made their presence forcefully known by taking or destroying fishing gear and equipment and sometimes by wounding or killing settlers. The latter, becoming more resentful, retaliated by shooting at Beothuk...

It became increasingly evident that proclamations ordering Newfoundland residents to live in peace with the Beothuk and requesting magistrates to bring wrongdoers to justice were ineffective. If persecutions were to be halted, other methods had to be found. In the 1780s and 1790s, four men submitted proposals to authorities in Britain promoting new measures to provide protection for the Beothuk and to improve relations. These men were George Cartwright, merchant and owner of fishing and sealing stations in Labrador; George Christopher Pulling, officer in the Royal Navy; Chief Justice John Reeves, law advisor to the Board of Trade, and William...

Ever since the English established permanent settlements in Newfoundland, the settlers had attempted to meet native Indians to trade with them. They believed the best way of making contact would be to visit their camps and make reciprocal exchanges of people. Later the capture of Beothuk was favoured. Even after relations had become precarious, the idea of taking one of the Beothuk by force, showing kindness, and then releasing him or her with presents dominated plans to conciliate the Beothuk. Throughout the records the theme of “capturing Indians” persists until the Beothuk had disappeared from the island.

This chapter discusses...

With the extension of English settlements into greater Notre Dame Bay, the Beothuk became increasingly confined both geographically and in terms of the time they would spend in areas resorted to by the English. During the summer months, the Beothuk travelled in their canoes along the coast and among the islands between Cape St John and Cape Freels.¹ Under cover of night, they made forays into the fishing harbours to obtain tools and equipment.² They routinely visited Fogo and Twillingate islands to catch seals and to procure other means of subsistence, and it is recorded that in 1809, they shot...

During the nineteenth century, Micmac continued to make steady inroads into Beothuk territory. They had settlements on the island, they interacted with the expanding European population, and, in contrast to the Beothuk, they had guns. By the early 1800s many Micmac families lived permanently in Newfoundland. St George’s Bay had become the seat of their largest and most thriving community, with a fluctuating population of between sixty and 150 individuals (Fig. 3-1).¹ The settlement was said to have been sanctioned by the English in the 1780s, when a Micmac elder or chief was given a tract of land in this...

The story of Demasduit, or Mary March as she was known to the English, is one of the best- authenticated of the recorded histories of Beothuk captives. Parts of the story, notably her capture, were described by several people whose accounts have survived to this day. Needless to say, there are discrepancies among the different accounts due to the relative astuteness of the observers and their memory for detail, the time lapse between actual events and their narration, and the tendency of some informants to play down or actually suppress unfavourable aspects of the story.

Demasduit had a captivating personality...

In 1822, three years after Demasduit had visited St John’s, William E. Cormack, an entrepreneur with scientific interest and a philantrophic bent, decided to explore the unknown interior of Newfoundland and search for the remains of the elusive Beothuk. Born a Newfoundlander in 1795 or 1796, Cormack grown up in Scotland and studied natural sciences at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh.¹ In the winter of 1821–22, he returned to Newfoundland to take over family business interests; within months of his arrival he conceived plan of walking across the island, with a friend and a native guide. To train...

It was mentioned in the last chapter that the Boeothick Institution, at its founding meeting, had resolved to place Shanawdithit under its care.¹ This resolution, later renewed, was not acted upon until the three native scouts returned from their second unsuccessful search for any remaining Beothuk. It now became evident that Shanawdithit might be the sole survivor. Since she alone could provide the institution with information on the tribe’s language and customs, her transfer to St John’s became of imminent concern.² Although Captain Buchan later claimed that she was transferred to St John’s by order of government, the responsibility for...

With the death of Shanawdithit in June 1829, many people believed that the Beothuk were now extinct, but no one knew this for certain. In the 1830s, Governor Henry Prescott (1834–40), after careful investigation and enquiry, officially adopted the opinion that all Beothuk had died.¹ However, since there were, according to Shanawdithit’s own testimony, some twelve or thirteen Beothuk survivors from her band at the time of her capture in 1823, it is likely that some of them were still alive after Shanawdithit had died, a notion that is supported in records and folklore memories of sightings and encounters...

The ethnography presented in this volume is a review of Beothuk cultural traits and practices. The source material used for this study are Beothuk artifacts, accounts, drawings, and wordlists obtained from Beothuk captives, archaeological data, unpublished and published contemporary reports and maps, and other documents; all are referenced in the notes. In order to extend the known data I have undertaken an intensive and systematic search for new documentation. The new material was analyzed and integrated with known sources, and all data were collated under specific subject headings. The available information is discussed in twelve chapters, each focusing on a...

The earliest inhabitants of Newfoundland were Maritime Archaic Indians, who lived for several millennia on the southern Labrador coast until some of them crossed the Strait of Belle Isle to Newfoundland around 5000 BP (BP stands for Before Present, reckoned from AD 1950; see Fig. I6.I).¹ Maritime Archaic Indian sites have been found around the entire Newfoundland coastline. Best known are the cemeteries at Port au Choix and on Twillingate Island (the Back Harbour site) and a campsite at The Beaches in Bonavista Bay. Maritime Archaic Indian remains have also been recovered inland at Red Indian Lake and on the...

Though the Beothuk were the only residents of Newfoundland at the time of discovery, we are not certain of their geographical distribution. The key questions discussed in this chapter are which areas of Newfoundland were occupied by Beothuk aboriginally, and how their distribution was affected by the increasing immigration of Europeans. Related to the foregoing are questions about the size of the Beothuk population and the rate at which it declined over 330 years.

To determine the original state of the Beothuk population historic documents as well as archaeological records have been consulted; both types of data have drawbacks. Sixteenth-century...

Historic accounts of Beothuk contain little direct information about social organization, although some general features can be extrapolated from Beothuk culture traits coupled with information on the social organization of other northeastern Algonquian tribes. Most of the details that are known were not collected until the mid-1700s. By that time significant changes had occurred in the size and distribution of the Beothuk population, which in turn would have affected other areas of their culture. Information from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries would therefore largely reflect social organization as it had developed through the impact of European and other native groups....

As hunters, gatherers, and fishers, the Beothuk exploited terrestrial fauna, marine resources, birds, and bird’s eggs, as well as edible plant foods. Their important resources, caribou, seal, and salmon, were migratory species.In response to these animals’ habits and habitats, the Beothuk moved in an annual cycle from inland locations to the coast and vice versa. Information on the types of food they consumed and the subsistence economies they had developed to provide nourishment throughout the seasons comes largely from contemporary reports, from accounts by Shanawdithit, and from the faunal remains found by archaeologists on Beothuk sites.¹

Before 1700, accounts by...

The Beothuk hunting, fishing, and gathering way of life involved cyclic moves from inland camps to the coast and vice versa. Mobility was paramount and precluded an accumulation of material possessions outside of a restricted range of implements that could easily be carried. These circumstances prevailed among many native groups with the result that native people were often highly versatile in the use of the few tools they possessed. In 1771, Samuel Hearne, an English trader from Prince of Wales Fort in Hudson Bay, observed Chipewayans building a canoe and noted that “all the tools used by an Indian in...

The first reliable accounts of Beothuk were given by John Guy and Henry Crout in 1612. No further information on Beothuk apparel and physiognomy was recorded until the second half of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, by which time they had been encountered on numerous occasions, and several had been captured and had lived with the English. Not all accounts agree as to details of costume, hairstyle, and other features. The diversity of descriptions may be due to changes over time or to stylistic varieties among or within bands that accentuated individual differences or affiliation to a specific group;...

Several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century documents mentioning Newfoundland’s native people describe their summer dwellings on the coast. Beothuk winter camps in inland regions were seldom observed since Europeans rarely penetrated into the interior of the country and even then did not necessarily record their exploits. The first person to describe Beothuk structures in detail was Lieut. John Cartwright who was sent up the Exploits River by Governor Palliser in 1768 in search of Beothuk (see chapter 6). In the early 1800s Beothuk winter houses were described by Lieut. David Buchan, the explorer William E. Cormack, and others. Contemporary information also comes...

The Beothuk, like other North American Indians, built birchbark canoes, which had an excellent carrying capacity and were reputed to be swifter than tenoared boat.¹ These canoes were the Beothuk’s most important means of transportation, enabling them to travel long distances at speed and to portage with ease. A small canoe could be carried by one man on his head or shoulders and a larger one by two or three.² Portage paths on the Exploits River circumvented rapids and the waterfall at Grand Falls; other portage routes led from Trinity to Placentia Bay, from Winter Tickle to Southern Arm in...

Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English observers maintained either that the Beothuk had no religion, or that it “rose but little above ... harmless trifling observances.” Beothuk cosmology as described by Shanawdithit, however, appears to have constituted a pervasive force in their lives, influencing individual as well as communal behaviour.¹ Outside of Shanawdithit’s testimony, much of what is known on this topic has been deduced from contemporary accounts, linguistic evidence, comments made by other captives, and certain artifacts and practices demonstrated through archaeological excavation. These pieces og information are not sufficient to recreate the Beothuk’s belief system. The best that can be...

The Beothuk, like other native people, took great care in the disposal of their dead. Since there are no eyewitness accounts of actual burial, information on mortuary practices derives from historic documents written by people such as W.E. Cormack who discovered burial sites many years ago, from archaelogical excavations, and from study of grave goods in museum collections¹. To give an idea of the kind of information that is available from well-documented graves, the following section describes two burial places along with type of burial, placement of the dead, and the deposition of grave goods.

During his second unsuccessful attempt...

The Beothuk’s main weapons in skirmishes were the bow and arrow, which were powerful tools in their hands.¹ They were said to be “Extreemly Dextrous in the use of their Bows & arrows & will when Pressd by an Enemy take 4 arrows 3 between the Fingers of their Left hand with which they hold the Bow & the fourth notchd in the string & Discharge them as quick as they Can draw the bow & with great Certainty.”² Darts, slings, and wooden clubs, referred to in the record of Sebastian Cabot’s voyage in 1508, may also have been employed.³...

Wordlists obtained from three Beothuk captives who lived in the Exploits River region represent all that is known of the Beothuk language. The first list was compiled in 1792, others were collected in the early 1800s. The varied histories of the informants and their contributions are presented in the first sections of this chapter. Generally, Beothuk terms for everyday objects and phrases were recorded by untrained listeners using improvised English phonetic spelling. Since the compilers of the lists were not familiar with Beothuk pronunciation, their interpretations of what they heard have resulted in rather unreliable renditions of the words.¹ The...

The information on Beothuk culture presented in the foregoing chapters gives a general idea of the Beothuk’s appearance, way of life and daily activities, their tools and techniques for procuring subsistence, some belief-related practices, and the dramatic changes in population size and distribution that occured after contact with Europeans. The information is multidisciplinary that it comes from historic records, archaeological excavations and surveys, linguistic investigations, folklore, and, to an extent, from recent biological studies of large mammal populations. While many cultural aspects are obscure and many questions remain unanswered, the accumulated data allow for some new syntheses.

For some time...