Beothuk Indians

Initially the Beothuk housing consisted of a small birch wigwam built around a framework of saplings. Historical records from the late 18th and early 19th centuries suggests that the Beothuks, once forced into taking refuge along the Exploits River, began building houses of logs instead of poles. They also built a variety of storehouses which resembled those being built by the Europeans. Another change that occurred to the lifestyle of the Beothuk caused by European presence was the substitution of metal for many of their traditional materials. The Beothuks are renown for having little contact with the white which makes the substitution of metal odd. They may have avoided direct contact, but they did not however avoid stealing from them. The Beothuk stole so much metal from the British and French, that they were one of the few native peoples who never had to trade with the Europeans to get what they needed. They used many of the metal scraps, left behind by the fishermen each fall in the form of wharves and small sheds, to make tools and weapons.

Like many of the other Eastern Woodland peoples, their social organization was loosely knit and centered in small family groups of twenty to thirty people. This was as many as the surrounding land area would be able to support between the caribou and seal hunting seasons (Such, 1978). The group had no true chief but only informal leaders, probably Shamans who would conduct ceremonies to appease the spirits of the animals they hunted. These spiritualists were the most influential members in the group.

The tragedy of the Beothuk was retold by Shanawdithit. At the time she and two other females surrendered to capture, the tribe had been reduced to so small a number that they were unable to keep up the deer-fences; and being driven from the shores, and from the fish and oysters, and the nests of water-owl, their means of existence were completely cut off. When hunger took over, several individuals ventured closer to civilization looking for food. It was then that they were either shot in fear, or captured “to help them”. A Mr. Cormack took Shanawdithit to his home, but when he had to return to England for a short trip, “consumption now crept rapidly through her frame; she became uneasy in her new dwelling, and was carried to the hospital, where, a few weeks afterward, on the 6th June, 1829, expired the last of the Boeothics.”1

and ultimately the hinterland was harvested by European trappers which in turn eliminated the beaver, marten, sable and other small game in which the Beothuk relied on. The final straw was the changing migration routes of the caribou, which the Beothuk had become so dependent on. With the population of the Beothuk depleted down to less than a few hundred by the mid-eighteenth century, they were unable to organize or the maintenance of the deerfences. This left the Beothuks to reduce themselves to mere scavenging.

There was growing European interest in the economic value of the salmon fishing and the fur trade. The salmon fishery involved the use of the estuaries and mouths of the rivers, areas that were indispensable to the Beothuk. Likewise, trapping animals for fur involved trespassing on Beothuk habitat with consequent confrontations and retaliations.

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