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Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Newfoundland and Labrador were inhabited for millennia by different groups of Indigenous peoples. The first brief European contact with Newfoundland and Labrador came around 1000 AD when the Vikings briefly settled in L'Anse aux Meadows. In 1497, European explorers and fishermen ...
- Early History
- Traditional Territory
- Traditional Life
- Culture
- Religion and Spirituality
- Language
- European Contact
- Perspectives on The Beothuk in Canadian History
- Repatriation of Beothuk Remains
Archaeological evidence, such as tools, weapons and household items, indicates that the Beothuk inhabited Newfoundlandlong before European colonization. It is believed that they may be descended from earlier people, sometimes referred to as the “Little Passage” people. This name is in reference to the first recognized Little Passage site on Newfoun...
At the time of European contact in the early 1500s, the Beothuk occupied at least the south and northeast coasts of Newfoundland. Shortly after the Europeans’ arrival, the Beothuk moved away from their coastal homelands and ancestral fishing camps to inland territories. Possible violent encounters with the Vikings between 800 and 1000 CE caused the...
The Beothuk lived in bark-covered or skin-covered tents in the summer and in semi-subterranean (partially underground) houses during the cold months. (See also Architectural History of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.) They were primarily a coastal people, organized in small bands throughout the various bays of Newfoundland to fish and hunt seals, oth...
The most distinctive of Beothuk artifacts are carved bone, antler and ivory pendants intricately decorated with carved patterns. Many of these items were recovered from grave sites in caves or rock shelters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Another notable feature of Beothuk culture was the people’s lavish use of powdered hematite, or red ...
As Algonquian peoples, the Beothuk may have shared similar origin stories, religious practices and worldviews. A Beothuk captive named Oubee once testified that her people revered the sun and moon. Shawnadithit, a Beothuk who recorded her people’s history, added that they believed in a spirit world with a supreme spirit (potentially the Creator) an...
Beothuk woman Demasduit created a dictionary of the Beothuk language in the 1800s. Demasduit was taken captive by English fishers in 1819 and sent to an Anglican missionary, where Beothuk vocabulary was recorded on paper. Word lists transcribed by Europeans in the 18th or early 19th centuries indicate that the Beothuk language was part of the Algon...
The earliest mention of the Beothuk in European records was perhaps in 1501, when Italian diplomat Alberto Cantino wrote of about 50 Indigenous men and women captives — possibly Beothuk — who he had seen in Lisbon, Portugal. During the era of contact, some European explorers captured and sent Indigenous peoples to Europe to be slaves or to serve as...
As a result of European encroachment, slaughter, and diseases to which they had no natural resistance, the Beothuk’s numbers diminished rapidly following contact. Canadian history books often state that the Beothuk subsequently disappeared and that Shawnadithit, who died in 1829, was the last Beothuk. Scottish merchant and naturalist William Cormac...
In 1827, William Cormack took the skulls of two Beothuk people, Demasduit and her husband, chief Nonosabasut. He sent them to his mentor Robert Jameson, a professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The remains were eventually housed at the National Museum of Scotland. In 2015, Chief Mi’sel Joe of the Miawpukek First Nati...
Long before European colonization, Newfoundland and Labrador were home to Indigenous peoples, primarily the Beothuk, Inuit, and Mi'kmaq. The Beothuk, a distinct group whose culture remains shrouded in some mystery, are believed to have inhabited the island of Newfoundland for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence points to a sophisticated
Sep 12, 2010 · Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland, the youngest of the Canadian provinces, joined the Confederation in 1949. Some portion of its coast was undoubtedly one of the first parts of the continent seen by Europeans. Its total area is 405,720 km 2, of which Labrador makes up almost three-quarters (294,330 km 2).
Exploration and Settlement. The region of Newfoundland and Labrador was the first stretch of North America's Atlantic coastline to be explored by Europeans, but it was one of the last to be settled in force and formally colonized. The Norse arrived from Greenland about 1000 A.D. and established settlements here during the following century.
Chapter 2. Indigenous Canada before Contact. 2.4 The Millennia before Contact. Figure 2.8 Mound-builder societies produced functional and graceful structures, including the Great Serpent Mound in the Ohio Valley. Early in their encounters with Indigenous peoples, European newcomers struggled to conceive of and understand a continent teeming ...
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Was Newfoundland a fishing colony?
For more than a century before the establishment of French or English colonies in North America the fishermen of Western Europe came year after year to Newfoundland to fill their boats with cod for the markets of the Old World . Of the earliest exploration and discovery of Newfoundland little is known. It is generally accepted that Norsemen ...
