BEOTHUK

1. BEOTHUK The lost tribe of Newfoundland Elsa Skogen. Sarah Williams

2. Who? • The Beothuk were a hunter gatherer tribe that lived on the coasts of Newfoundland. Such location provided the people with an abundance of fish and wildlife, due to the harshness of the northern climate inland. • They used the environment innovatively to produce various foods, such as pudding from tree sap and Great Auk egg yolk. • For the long winters food was preserved, and fur bearing animal skins were worn with the fur against the human skin to retain heat better.

3. Unlike other natives of the Americas, the Beothuk did not farm. The northern climate’s summer season was too short to allow anything to grow, thus the Beothuk relied on coastal populations of salmon, seals, and caribou.

4. Culture • The Beothuk were not lead by a chief, but rather had band leaders, like a committee, that would share information, ideas, and power. • They lived in self sufficient groups of 30-55 people, with a total recorded population of around 2,000. • Language branched from Algonquian, a dialect of the Ojibwe language. However, the Beothuk’s language was deemed an isolate, not belonging to any established branch and not consisting of prominent ancestor links to nearby tribes of the 15th century.

5. Shelter consisted of wooden poles triangulating towards a center atop, tied, and covered with birch bark. Inside, the earth was dug for sleeping arrangements, and in the center was a fireplace, similar to other native constructs. • The Beothuk had a fetish for the color red. Their shelters, bodies, canoes, weapons, and various items were daubed in the alluring pigment, for purposes regarding alert to foreign tribes, or simply aesthetic diversion. It was punishment to be stripped or denied of one’s redness. • Later travelers titled them “Red Indians”, for literal reasons.

6. First Contact • The Norse: Mighty explorers, traders, and pillagers that terrorized Europe with their ardent staunchness for freedom and adventure, and perhaps a slight craving for blood and nightmarish intimidation. • Introductory relations with Newfoundland’s indigenous people began with a notorious Viking name Erik the Red. Upon exile from Europe for perpetrating manslaughter, Erik the Red and a few companions sailed from Iceland to what was later deemed Greenland by the Norse settlers.

7. At this time, it was around the 11th century, and the Beothuk predecessors were the ones who met the supposedly criminal Norse outcasts. • Being natural traders, the Norse greeted the natives and offered things such as milk and leathers. An attempt at a weapon trade was prohibited. • Throughout next generations, however, relations between the two peoples grew resourcefully tense.

8. The Beothuk moved inland to avoid relations with the newcomers, and attempt to suffice the food needs of their tribe. • This led to their demise, as resources were cut short, and enemy territory was breached. • The Beothuk population began to dramatically increase, taking the culture and language with them. • In one woman of Beothuk remained, a captive later Europeans.

9. Shanawdithit, or Nancy April, was the last recorded Beothuk in the early 19th century. She was hoped to be a bridge between the growing European settlers and the dwindling population of Beothuk, but religious beliefs of sacrificing Natives who came in contact with the Europeans prevented her from accompanying expeditions. • Shanawsithit died of TB in 1829, her skull sent to the Royal College of Surgeons for study, but destroyed in the german bombings of London WWI. • Beothuk culture is learned through what remains as ruins, and what Shanawsithit was able to convey in drawings.

10. sources • http://www.dickshovel.com/beo.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beothuk http://www.google.com/search?q=shanawdithit&hl=en&client=safari&sa=X&tbo=p&rls=en&tbs=tl:1,tll:1828,tlh:1828&prmd=i&ei=sLz6S8G2CcHflgfCwPzGCg&oi=toolbelt_timeline_result&resnum=3&ct=timeline-date&ved=0CDoQzQEwAg “A history and Ethnography of the Beothuk”, Ingeborg Marshall, 1996 Interview with dad.