The Collapse of the Beothuk World

Abstract

Until recently, the beothuks, Newfoundland's aboriginal people who became extinct in 1829, were a shadowy people whose origins, culture, and demise were little understood. In the past 15 years, however, archaeological, historical, and linguistic investigation has produced answers to a number of significant questions about them. It is now clear that the Beothuks were a hunting and gathering people of Algonkian stock,1 whose ancestors in Newfoundland produced tools typologically similar to the late prehistoric Indian inhabitants of coastal Labrador and the Quebec North Shore.2 It is also clear that, prior to the coming of Europeans, the Beothuk occupied, or at least used, all of the island of Newfoundland with the possible exception of the Avalon peninsula east of Trinity Bay. This island, despite its enormous size, has a simplified ecosystem characterized by a disproportionately small number of prey species relative to the large number of predators. Those predators included wolves, bears, lynx, marten, mink, weasels, otter, fox, and human beings. The major native interior prey species were caribou, beaver, and arctic hare (although the bones of the latter have never been identified from an archaeological site on the island). In essence, then, the island is a rather impoverished piece of the boreal forest in the mouth of the St. Lawrence. Of course, the surrounding waters are much richer in available food. Most important of the marine mammals to native hunters were harbour, harp, grey, and hooded seals, and walruses, all of which were once found in abundance off the coasts. Other marine resources available to the Beothuks included cod, salmon, flounder, smelt, capelin, mussels, soft-shelled clams, and lobsters. A number of avian species also contributed to the aboriginal diet including the now extinct great auk as well as murres and a wide variety of ducks and geese.3

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