The Beothuk

By Ingeborg Marshall

A history of the Beothuk of Newfoundland. Exciting in its detail, this book gives us a rare picture of a lost people whose culture was destroyed after the arrival of white settlers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breakwater Books
• Release date: Mar 9, 2009
• ISBN: 9781550813043

Ingeborg Marshall

Ingeborg Marshall has studied with great interest the Beothuk of Newfoundland since she became a resident of the province of Newfoundland. In 1984 she received a Masters of Anthropology from Memorial University. Her masters thesis, Beothuck Bark Canoes: An Analysis and Comparative Study was published by the National Museum in Ottawa. Her research on the Beothukk has included archaeological surveys of various camp and burial sites in the Notre Dame Bay area and systematic search of Archives in Canada and abroad for previously uncovered documents of the Beothuk.

Book preview

Cover: “The Beothuk”, by Ingeborg Marshall.

THE BEOTHUK

Ingeborg Marshall

logo: Breakwater Books.logo: Breakwater Books.

BREAKWATER BOOKS LTD.

JESPERSON PUBLISHING • BREAKWATER DISTRIBUTORS

www.breakwaterbooks.com

---

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Marshall, Ingeborg, 1929

             The Beothuk

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 0-9680803-3-2

ISBN 13: 978-1-55081-258-9

1. Beothuk Indians. 2. Beothuk Indians-History

I. Newfoundland Historical Society. II. Title

E99.B4M358 2001      971.8’004979      C2001-902128-3

© Ingeborg Marshall      Editor: J.K. Hiller

Originally printed in Canada in 2001 by The Newfoundland Historical Society with financial assistance of the Beothuk Institute.

Reprinted in 2009 by Breakwater Books Ltd.

---

Table of Contents

1 Introduction

2 Prehistory

3 Distribution, Population Size and Social Organization

4 Hunting, Fishing and Gathering

5 Burial Practices

6 Relations between Beothuk and Newcomers in the 1500s and 1600s

including description of Beothuk appearance, clothing and trade ritual

7 Relations between Beothuk and Mi’kmaq, Labrador Montagnais (Innu) and Inuit

8 Competition for Resources with Fishermen/Settlers

including the Beothuk’s refusal to trade

9 Lieutenant John Cartwright’s Expedition into Beothuk Country.

including a population estimate, descriptions of conical and rectangular dwellings, caribou fences and birch bark canoes

10 Hostilities between Fishermen/Settlers, Furriers and the Beothuk

including a discussion of the BeothuVs defiance

11 Plans to Conciliate the Beothuk

including the taking of Beothuk captives, and reference to a vocabulary

12 Meeting of Lieutenant David Buchan and Beothuk at Red Indian Lake

including a description of Beothuk clothing and winter dwellings

13 Demasduit

including reference to her portrait and Beothuk vocabulary

14 Relations between the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq in the Early 1800s

15 William Eppes Cormack and the Boeothick Institution

including information on Beothuk camps and caribou fences

16 Shanawdithit

including sketches of encounters with the whites, of artifacts and food items and information on Beothuk population figures, language, origin myth, belief in life after death and ritual feasts

17 Conclusion

Endnotes

Select Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Breakwater Books Ltd. gratefully acknowledges permission from McGill-Queen’s University Press to use material from A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk, by Ingeborg Marshall, published 1996, reprinted 1997, 1999.

The author gratefully acknowledges the helpful suggestions from readers of the manuscript: James K. Hiller, Alan Macpherson, William Marshall, Priscilla Renouf, Shannon Ryan, Hope Squires, and additional editorial work by Garfield Fizzard and Anne Hart.

On the cover is shown The Spirit of the Beothuk, a bronze sculpture, created by Newfoundland artist Gerald Squires, commissioned by the Beothuk Institute. Photograph by Ingeborg Marshall, reproduced with permission of Gerald Squires.

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Map of Newfoundland

2 Boyd’s Cove Beothuk camp site

3 Shanawdithit’s Sketch VIII, dancing woman and artifacts

4 Shanawdithit’s Sketch VII, different animal foods

5 Burial cave at The Launch on Long Island

6 Birch bark container from burial hut

7 Moccasins and wooden figurine from burial on Big Island

8 Beothuk bone pendants

9 Map of Northeastern Newfoundland

10 Sketch of Beothuk camp from Lieut. John Cartwright’s map, 1768

11 End profile of canoe replica drawn by Clifford George

12 Canoe replica made by Shanawdithit

13 Shanawdithit’s Sketch I, Captain Buchan’s visit 1811

14 Coat fringe from burial hut

15 Portrait of Demasduit by Lady Hamilton, 1819

16 Map of Beothuk hunting grounds by R.H. Bonnycastle

17 Shanawdithit’s Sketch IX, emblems of mythology

18 The Spirit of the Beothuk by artist Gerald Squires

1

INTRODUCTION

The extinction of the Beothuk—at once the most distressing aspect of their history and the most complex—has often been the focus of interest in this aboriginal population. But there is more to know about the Beothuk than their tragic fate. The Beothuk were a proud and independent people who had successfully adapted to their environment and who flourished until incursions by other populations deprived them of much of their resource base. The purpose of this booklet is to present a more complete picture.

The monograph starts with an overview of the Beothuk’s position in Newfoundland prehistory, followed by an outline of their distribution and population size at the time of first contact with Europeans, of their social organization, subsistence strategies and burial practices. With this information as a basis, attention is focussed on their history. Due to the nature of the available documentation, it largely centres on the development of relations between Beothuk and those Europeans who came to fish or settle in Newfoundland and on the impact of other native groups. Additional cultural information on such matters as the Beothuk’s appearance and clothing, their houses and means of transportation, their language and beliefs are described in the context of reports written by contemporary observers. The intent of presenting cultural data in this sequence is to indicate how little the people in fishing communities as well as in government knew about the traditions of their native neighbours or subjects. This lack of understanding promoted misperceptions and disregard for the Beothuk and exacerbated growing suspicion and hostile attitudes. The deterioration of relations as well as other factors that contributed to the eventual demise of the Beothuk are discussed as they emerge from the records.¹

2

PREHISTORY

Where did the Beothuk came from and how long had they lived in Newfoundland? The short answer is that the ancestors of the Beothuk, known as (prehistoric) Recent Indians, came across from Labrador about 2000 years ago. But the Recent Indians were not the first people to live in Newfoundland. The earliest native group to arrive on the island, around 5500 years ago (3500 BC) were the Maritime Archaic Indians who had already hunted and fished in Labrador for several millennia.² They gradually spread across much of the island, predominantly along its coast, where they made use of marine resources primarily, although they would also have hunted in the interior. Among the many Maritime Archaic Indian sites that have been excavated are those at Port au Choix on the west coast of the Northern Peninsula and at The Beaches and Cape Freels in Bonavista Bay.³ The story of the Maritime Archaic Indians in Newfoundland ends about 3000 years ago (1000 BC). They either died out, or remnants of the group returned to Labrador. Some archaeologists favour a third possibility, namely that small groups may have survived in the interior of Newfoundland, though signs of their presence after 1000 BC have not (yet) been found (Fig.1). Since some Maritime Archaic Indian practices, such as the use of red ochre and pendant-like carvings have also been noted from the Beothuk, a link between these two populations is considered possible.

A century or two after Maritime Archaic Indian occupancy, Early Palaeo-Eskimos came across from Labrador (ca. 850 BC). They spread across the North American Arctic from west to east before moving down the Labrador coast and to Newfoundland. Being primarily sea-mammal hunters, they lived