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
The manner that the Beothuk traveled was by means of canoes which were made from birch bark. Deerfences were constructed and maintained by the group, sometimes fifty kilometers long. Other native groups may have traveled now and then to parts of Newfoundland to exploit the islands resources, but by the 1500's the Beothuks were the only permanent residents of the island. Given their lack of immunity and their living habits, once the disease was established among them, the Beothuks were unable to fight it. The movement of the Beothuk culture was controlled by the availability of food. The Beothuk responded in killing 37 French fishermen. If one or more of the major species upon which the Beothuk depended on for survival were unavailable for more than a year, the likely result would have been starvation. At other times, the local band may have occupied a village on the coast for the entire year, only sending hunting parties a short distance inland in the fall, while in other areas a whole community may have spend the warmer months on the coast, and the colder parts of the winter inland. The tragedy of the Beothuk was retold by Shanawdithit. 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. By the middle of the 18th century, other economic factors began to have apparently serous results. During the 1700's parts of Bonavista Bay and most of its larger islands had been settled by cod fishermen (Rowe, 1977). The final straw was the changing migration routes of the caribou, which the Beothuk had become so dependent on. Birch bark was used by the Beothuks for everything except for clothing and tools.
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Acceptance Essays
