Beothuk Indians
The Beothuk were the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland when European settlers first arrived. The total Beothuk population, at any one time, is thought by present day archaeologists to have numbered between 500 and 1000 individuals. Their subsistence economy was marine based, supplemented by inland Caribou hunting. Their traditional enemies were the Micmac and the Labrador Eskimos, and for the most part the Beothuk kept to themselves and avoided contact with Europeans, so very little is known about them. The tragic story of the Beothuks has attracted a great deal of attention with the supposition that the extinction of their people was due to the settlers and fishermen slaughtering them. Given the Beothuk pattern of avoiding Europeans, it is also likely that there was relatively little danger of infection from European disease until relatively late in the history of the Beothuks when contacts with outsiders were more frequent. Although some were killed by the Europeans who resented Beothuk thefts, and some perished due to disease, this was not the major cause of their demise. Their fate was sealed by the growing Micmac presence and English settlement which caused a loss of access to the seals, fish, birds and shell
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. In 1927 there was a search in Newfoundland to find the remaining Beothuks however the search was fruitless. If there were any Beothuk remaining after the turn of the 19th century, it is feasible that the remaining population crossed over to mainland Labrador and were absorbed into the Montagnais of Naskapi. The first attempt to formally colonize Newfoundland was made by John Guy in 1610 (Rowe p13), and by that time as many as two hundred fishing ships arrived each spring and left each fall. In 1612, a historic event occurred in that it was the first recorded occasion when European settlers and Beothuk Indians met on peaceful terms. A plan was formulated by which they could co-exist however this plan of action was never carried out. By 1620, the Beothuks were staying away from the Avalon Peninsula, and as the century wore on they had little to do with the south and west coasts (Rowe, 1977). This was most likely due to the European settlements and ships on and around the Avalon, and the French fishermen and the Micmacs to the south and west. By the early 1700's infrequent contacts between whites and Beothuks were the result of the habit of the Beothuks of stealing from the Europeans everything they could lay their hands on, even though reprisal was most often the result. The Beothuk would avoid Europeans while they were there in the summer and then pilfer their abandoned dwellings when they left. After awhile familiarity, curiosity and greed led to constant theft while the Europeans were actually there. The European fishermen erected staged flakes and wharves in the summer fishery, but after they left the island to return to Europe, they left behind nails, lost fishhooks and scraps of iron and kettle. Evidence from Beothuk sites indicate that they picked up these objects and reworked them into arrowheads, lance points, harpoon end blades, awls and hide scrappers. Within a few years contact between the Beothuk and the Europeans became common, but not in the kind that builds trust and friendship. The natives stole anything that was not nailed down, and the fishermen treated the Beothuk with contempt, distrust and even hatred. By the 1720's the Micmac dislodged the Beothuk from St. George's Bay and subsequently from portions of Newfoundland's west and south coast to that the Beothuk territory was once again reduced (Marshal, 1996). The Beothuk were driven inland away from their usual food sources along the coast yet there was little reason to hunt for fur-bearing animals such as lynx, marten, etc due to the fact that these animals provided little edible meat. The emergence of Newfoundland trappers meant that the Beothuk were now increasingly competing with Europeans in the interior. The presence of trap parts in eighteenth and nineteenth century campsites show evidence of the Beothuk taking traps, a practice that inevitably brought retaliation. 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.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Beothuk Unlike, British French, Williams War, Beothuks Instead, Eskimos Beothuk, George's Bay, Micmac Beothuk, Beothuk Likewise, Avalon French, Exploits River, rowe 1977, notre dam, little passage, nova scotia, bonavista bay, micmac beothuk, contact europeans, beothuk culture, micmacs nova scotia, beothuk indians, people beothuk, notre dam bay, little passage indians,
Approximate Word count = 4237
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page double spaced)
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