First of all, allow me to apologize if this post doesn't belong in this forum - as the European conflict with the Beothuk of Newfoundland didn't
start until the Vikings arrived a little more than a thousand years ago, and even then didn't begin in earnest until around the early 16th century
when European fisherman and whalers began to establish their early seasonal fishing villages here.
For those of you unaware of the Beothuk and their tragic fate at the hands, regrettably, of my ancestors, allow me to provide a wiki link:
en.wikipedia.org...
To summarize, the Beothuk people were a distinct culture of Natives with their own language and customs who were wiped out by the the early 19th
century, the last distinctly Beothuk individual was a woman named Shanawdithit, better known here on the island by the name the locals took to calling
her, Nancy April.
In April of 1823, she, her mother and her sister emerged from the wilderness, emaciated, to seek help from a trapper. They were transferred to the
capital, St. John's, where Shanawdithit's mother and sister died of tuberculosis shortly after. Shanawdithit herself survived for several years,
first working in the home of a wealthy St.John's man as a servant, until she herself became ill with tuberculosis, and then was taken in by a doctor
in the small town of Botwood (my father's home town) where she died in 1829.
At the time, very little was known by the English Newfoundlanders about the Beothuk and their customs, only that there had been hostilities between
the two groups for many years.
Interestingly, the Beothuk refused trade with European populations, and refused to engage in the fur trade that many other (surviving) First Nations
groups engaged in. This attitude perhaps dated back to interactions with the Vikings, with the Beothuk learning early on that little good could come
of their association with white people, or perhaps from the early hostilities with fisherman even before permanent year-round European settlements
began on the island around the mid-sixteen hundreds.
And it's the Vikings that bring be to my main point. First, let me state that I'm not claiming that there are any Beothuk living, hidden in the
island's vast forests. The island is fairly heavily forested, but it is, after all, an island. In terms of being a distinct culture, with their own
language, there's no question that they're extinct in that sense.
Recently, there's been a lot of buzz about the discovery of people in Iceland who carry Native markers in their blood - indeed, in the saga relating
to Vinland (L'anse aux Meadows) they state that they brought a number of Native women back with them. One of those markers has been particularly
associated with the Beothuk people, so there's intriguing evidence that at least some of their genetic material lives on.
blogs.canoe.ca/parker/general/descendants-of-newfoundlands-extinct-beothuk-live-on-in-iceland/
Additionally, there's been rampant speculation that the Beothuk interbred with the M'ikmak people, but funding to support a genetic study to
determine the validity of that is woefully unavailable. Seems that the people who run the joint don't much care to know.
The M'ikmak migrated to the island from neighbouring Nova Scotia while the Beothuk numbers were dwindling, but there had long been trade between the
two cultures and relatively friendly relations, giving ample opportunity for some good old fashioned.. old fashioned.
The M'ikmak angle is particularly exciting to me - my paternal grandmother was a M'ikmak woman, so there's a chance, however remote, that I have
some tiny fraction of Beothuk blood in my veins.
But the sad truth is, for anybody carrying Beothuk genes, the percentage would only conceivably be 1-2%, meaning that in all likelyhood any individual
of predominately European descent carries more Neanderthal blood than Beothuk blood.
The fate of the Beothuk at the hands of our not-so-distant ancestors is a shame that many Newfoundlanders carry with us. Yes, there were atrocities
committed by both groups against one another. But only one of those groups committed a systematic and organized genocide against the other - there
were actually bounties on the heads of any Beothuk, with people making decent money off of massacring Beothuk settlements and claiming the bounties on
their heads.
I'll end this thread with the story of a young woman named Demasduit, who was taken captive years before
Shanawdithit willingly emerged from the wilderness. The English called her Mary March, and she was taken captive in March of 1819. Her journey to the
European Newfoundlander's world was not at all like Shanawdithit's, she was taken by force in a raid on her village - her husband and many other
individuals were killed in that raid, she was only spared because she bared her chest to show the white raiders that she was a nursing mother. This
raid, I'll add, was led - shamefully - by a distant relative of mine, John Peyton JR. Her baby died in captivity.
There's a portrait of this striking young woman, one that's haunted me ever since I learned about the fate of the Beothuk in my fourth grade Social
Studies class what seems like a lifetime ago.
That is, to my knowledge, the one and only portrait that exists of a living, breathing Beothuk individual, which I think is a testament to just how
thorough the genocide of the Beothuk was. Her expression has long puzzled me, and her very expressive eyes have long haunted me. I can vividly imagine
the fear in those eyes as my distant ancestor prepared to murder her to claim a bounty - I wonder if it wasn't those same big eyes that stayed his
hand.