Beothuk

The Beothuk were an Indigenous people who inhabited the island of Newfoundland, along its coastline and in interior valleys. They were a hunter-gatherer society that moved seasonally to exploit salmon runs, seals, caribou, and wild berries. Their material culture included simple tools made from stone and bone and birch-bark canoes. They are particularly noted for using red ochre to paint the body and clothing, a practice that gave them their widely used name in archaeological and ethnographic literature.

European contact began with early explorers and fishermen in the 16th century and intensified with sustained settlement in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Beothuk population declined rapidly due to the introduction of new diseases, loss of access to traditional resources, and increasing displacement and conflict as European colonists moved into Beothuk territories. As settlements expanded, many Beothuk were driven inland or isolated along the coast, and their communities gradually diminished.

By the early 19th century the Beothuk had effectively disappeared as a distinct group. The last known Beothuk, Shawnadithit, died in 1829 in St. John’s, and the Beothuk language became extinct. Because their language is poorly attested, most knowledge about Beothuk comes from later ethnographic descriptions, artifacts, and Shawnadithit’s own drawings and testimonies.

Today, the Beothuk are recognized as a distinct Indigenous culture of Newfoundland in historical and archaeological scholarship. Their legacy persists in place names, artifacts housed in museums, and ongoing efforts to understand their history and interactions with European settlers.