The Beothuk* are one of Canada’s most enigmatic indigenous peoples.  When Europeans began arriving in large numbers around 1500, the Beothuk were the main indigenous inhabitants of the island of Newfoundland, which lies off the east coast of Canada.  So little is known about the Beothuk Nation because there are relatively few recorded instances of friendly contact between Europeans and Beothuk, and because the Beothuk disappeared in the early nineteenth century.

There are no written records and very little in the way of oral history documenting pre-contact Beothuk history.  Nevertheless, archeologists have been able to reconstruct the early history of human occupation in Newfoundland.  The earliest known inhabitants of Newfoundland were a group of people called ‘archaic maritime Amerindians’.  These people arrived on the island from Labrador on the mainland around 3000 BC and disappeared by around 1050 BC.  The next group to settle the island were the Inuit, who arrived around 850 BC and abandoned the island by 950 AD.  Around 50 BC, researchers believe that a new group, called ’recent Amerindians’ by scholars, moved into western Newfoundland.  These people were the direct ancestors of the Beothuk.  Archeologists know this because the tools made by the prehistoric ‘recent Amerindians‘ are virtually identical to those made by the post-contact Beothuk.  The main adaptation made by the Beothuk after contact was the replacement of stone implements with iron ones by the mid-eighteenth century (Marshall, p.13-14).

The Beothuk were semi-nomadic hunters, gatherers and fishers who moved seasonally.  In the spring and summer they lived near the coast, fishing for salmon and other seafood, and hunting seabirds and marine mammals.  In the fall and winter they moved inland, hunting caribou and fur-bearing animals (Marshall, p. 3).  The Beothuk lived in bark or skin-covered tents in the summer and in underground homes in the colder months.  They used harpoons, spears and bows and arrows to hunt (Canadian Encyclopedia “Beothuk“ by James A. Tuck, p. 205-A).  The bow and arrow was their main weapon in armed conflicts with other groups.  Unlike other indigenous peoples, the Beothuk never adopted the use of firearms (Marshall, p. 421).

Very little is known about the Beothuk language.  A few word lists were compiled by the British with the help of Beothuk captives.  The word lists, however, are incomplete and filled with inconsistencies.  Moreover, they contain very little information on the grammar of the language and the people who transcribed the words likely made many errors because they were not familiar with the sounds used in the Beothuk language.  Some linguists believe that the Beothuk language was part of the Algonquian language family, with whom it seems to share structural similarities.  Others have argued that Beothuk was a language isolate, since the limited vocabulary that has been recorded shows little affinity to any other known indigenous languages (Tuck, p. 205-A; Marshall, p. 6, 428, 436).

Europeans came into contact with the Beothuk when they began to explore and colonize Newfoundland around 1500.  There are, however, relatively few written records of contact between Europeans and Beothuk.  There are several possible reasons for this.  First, the Beothuk population was probably never very large.  The relatively harsh environment of the island of Newfoundland cannot support very large concentrations of people.  The Beothuk Nation may have only numbered 500 to 1000 people when Europeans first arrived.  Furthermore, the Beothuk population declined quickly after contact (Tuck, p. 205-A).  Like other indigenous peoples they no doubt suffered from infectious diseases introduced by European settlers (Marshall, p. 4).

The Europeans who settled Newfoundland were fishermen and whalers rather than explorers and scholars.  These people had the most opportunities for contact with the Beothuk.  However, they were generally not well-educated and did not leave written records behind.  As a result, many of the early contacts between European settlers and Beothuk may have gone unrecorded (Marshall, p. 19-23).

The Beothuk themselves seem to have been hostile and suspicious towards outsiders.  They seem to have deliberately avoided contact with Europeans, withdrawing from coastal areas frequented by European ships (Marshall, p. 22-23).  

The encroachment of Europeans and other indigenous peoples into their territory reduced the land available to the Beothuk for sustenance.  Perhaps because of this competition for resources, relations between the Beothuk and other groups were often hostile and sometimes violent.  In recent years the Beothuk have been stereotyped as the passive and inoffensive victims of European aggression.  In reality, however, the Beothuk were involved in cycles of tit for tat violence with both European settlers and with other indigenous peoples.  British settlers, for example, sometimes hunted Beothuk for sport, like wild game.  The Beothuk, for their part, ambushed British settlers and ceremonially beheaded their captives (Marshall, p. 426).  The Beothuk were also involved in armed conflict with the Inuit in the northern part of the island and a blood feud with the Micmac in the south (Marshall, p. 3, 8, 45-49).

Regular trade contacts never seem to have developed between Europeans and Beothuk (Marshall, p. 3, 27-28).  Contacts between settlers and Beothuk were often antagonistic.  Most first-hand knowledge of the Beothuk Nation, for example, comes from a handful of Beothuk individuals who were captured by the British.  The kidnapping of individuals seems to have been the preferred technique used by British officials and settlers seeking to establish contact with the Beothuk.  Much of the first-hand knowledge of Beothuk language and cultural practices comes from Beothuk captives, in particular from a woman named Shawnandithit (Marshall, p. 5-6, 47-49, 428, 436).

By the early 1820s the Beothuk had been greatly reduced in number and their society seems to have been on the verge of collapse.  In March 1823, three starving Beothuk women were captured by British fur trappers.  One of these women, Shawnandithit lived for a few years in European society.  The other two women, her mother and sister, had died soon after being captured.  Shawnandithit died of tuberculosis in 1829 in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  She was the last known surviving member of the Beothuk Nation (Tuck, p. 205-B; Story, p. 1989-A).  Although a few individuals may have managed survive on their own a bit longer, the Beothuk had probably ceased to exist as a viable society by the 1820s (Marshall, p. 4).

Bibliography and Notes

* “Beothuk” is sometimes spelled “Beothuck”

Ingeborg Marshall.  A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk.  , Kingston, Ontario, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999.

G.M. Story.  “Shawnandithit.”  The Canadian Encyclopedia.  Edmonton, Canada: Hurtig Publishers Ltd., 1988., p. 1989-A.

James A. Tuck.  “Beothuk.”  The Canadian Encyclopedia.  Edmonton, Canada: Hurtig Publishers Ltd., 1988., p. 205-A, 205-B.