Beothuk People - Extinction

Extinction

Population estimates of Beothuks remaining at the end of the first decade of the 19th century vary widely, from about 150 up to 3,000. Information about the Beothuk was based on accounts by the woman Shanawdithit, who told about the people who "wintered on the Exploits River or at Red Indian Lake and resorted to the coast in Notre Dame Bay". References in records also noted some survivors on the Northern Peninsula in the early 19th century.

During the colonial period, the Beothuk people also endured territorial pressure from Native groups: Mi'kmaq migrants from Cape Breton Island, and Inuit from Labrador. "The Beothuk were unable to procure sufficient subsistence within the areas left to them." They entered into a cycle of violence with some of the newcomers. Beothuk numbers dwindled rapidly due to a combination of factors, including:

• loss of access to important food sources, from competition with Inuit and Mi'kmaqs as well as European settlers;
• infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, such as smallpox, introduced by European contact;
• endemic tuberculosis (TB), which weakened tribal members; and
• violent encounters with trappers, settlers and other natives.

By 1829, with the death of Shanawdithit, the people were officially declared extinct.

Oral histories asserted that a few Beothuk survived for some years around the region of the Exploits River, Twillingate, Newfoundland; and Labrador; and formed unions with European colonists, Inuit and Mi'kmaq. Their children carried Beothuk genes as well as those of other ancestors. Some families from Twillingate claim partial descent from Beothuk people of the early 19th century.

In 1910 a 75-year old Native woman named Santu Toney, who said she was the daughter of a Mi'kmaq mother and a Beothuk father, recorded a song in the Beothuk language for the American anthropologist Frank Speck. He was doing field studies in the area. She said her father had taught her the song.

Since Santu Toney was born about 1835, this may be evidence that some Beothuk people survived beyond the death of Shanawdithit in 1829. Contemporary researchers have tried to transcribe the song, as well as improve the recording by current methods. Native groups have learned the song to use in celebrations of tradition.