Notes

Beothuk, the extinct aboriginals.
By: Victoria Chenier
3/11/17
NEWFOUNDLAND- Before settlers came there was the Beothuks in Newfoundland. The Beothuk are the native people of Newfoundland. Beothuk means “the people” or “true people." When settlers found Newfoundland they brought different metal objects and when they left to go back to Europe they left some metal objects behind and the Beothuk made them into useful things. Over time, they died from diseases and conflicts
What they ate and where they lived.
They ate what they could farm or scavenge and they hunted for deer and seals and fished for salmon and shellfish.
They live in mamatuks in summer and winter wigwams in winter. The mamatuks are bark or skin covered tents and the winter wigwams are partially underground mamatuks.
The Beothuk were a coastal people but as the Europeans settled, they moved inland. They avoided the Europeans because of a bad experience with Vikings.
Shawnadithit, the last known Beothuk.
In the spring of 1823 Shawnadithit, her sister and her mother were taken captive by the furrier William Cull. The authorities decided to return them to their people as symbols of peace, loaded them with presents, and left them at the start of Charles Brook with a small boat. All three women were sick with tuberculosis. Shawnadithit’s sister died and it was obvious that her mother was going to die soon. When her mother died she took her mother to a sandy point by the waters of Red Indian Lake, held her in her arms and sang to her. She sewed her body into a blanket of birch bark and buried her. Shawnadithit lived for a while in St.Johns. Though she was clearly intelligent, there was no attempt to encourage her to speak of her experiences. She died on June 6, 1829.
Other facts about the Beothuk.
Their language, Beothukian, may be related to the language of Algonquian. At the time of European contact, they numbered between 500 to 1000. They painted thing with powdered hematite or red ochre. They also made things out of bone.





After Shawnadithit died the Beothuk were never seen again. It is said that the Beothuk intermarried with other aboriginal tribes.