by Imonikhe Ahimie

Created on: July 05, 2009   Last Updated: July 13, 2009

The Beothuk were the native inhabitants of Newfoundland Island when the European colonialists arrived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. About half a millennium earlier, Norse explorers from Europe had made contact with the inhabitants of the island whom are likely to be the ancestors of the folk that the later European colonialists came in contact with. These folk, whose name for themselves is believed to mean just "the people" in the language that they spoke, were spread throughout the island although the earliest and most continuous contacts were in the areas that are now Notre Dame and Bonavista bays. Population estimates by the Europeans of the Beothuk as at the time the Europeans came into contact with them range between 500 and 2000, although the accounts by the Beothuk themselves suggest that they were much more numerous and that the decline in population was a direct result of their encounter with French colonialists who instituted the practice of paying for Beothuk scalps. The Beothuk are believed to be the descendants of the folk whom Norse explorers had come into contact with around 1000 AD, and whom they called skraelings.

The Beothuk were hunter-gatherers who lived in independent, self-sufficient extended family groups of between 30 to 60 persons and they lived in conical homes which they called mamateeks. These mamateeks were constructed by arranging poles in a circle and tying them on top. The buildings were then covered by bark from birches. Hollows, dug into the ground, served as sleeping places and each dwelling had a fireplace in the centre.

The main food sources of the Beothuk were caribou, salmon and seal, whose migratory patterns they followed, supplemented by some other plant and animal species with surplus food being stored against the winter. Fur bearing animals were trapped for their furs which provided clothing for the Beothuk.

The first Europeans called the Beothuk Red Indians, from their habit of painting their bodies, houses, canoes, weapons and household implements with red ochre. The use of the red ochre was of great cultural significance, and a major punishment amongst the Beothuk was to forbid an offender the use of the ochre.

With few exceptions, the relationship between the Europeans and the Beothuk was extremely poor, very often degenerating into violence, with the Beothuk, with their more primitive weapons, almost always on the losing side. Unlike some other native people, the Beothuk evinced no desire to

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