June 6, 1829 - Shanawdithit - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Shanawdithit, Newfoundland’s last surviving Beothuk aboriginal, dies. Hundreds of years before European settlers arrived, groups of aboriginals crossed the Strait of Belle Isle to live in what became Newfoundland. Known as Beothuk, they were the first indigenous people to meet European settlers in the 1500s, and archaeologists estimate they numbered between 500 and 1,000. The Beothuk tradition of painting their bodies with red ochre prompted settlers to call all aboriginals “reds.” As European settlers arrived in greater numbers and claimed land that the Beothuks used for hunting and fishing, conflict and white diseases – including tuberculosis and influenza – killed many Beothuks. In the 1800s, their survival was further threatened by conflict and intermarriage with the Mi’kmaqs, who traveled to Newfoundland from the mainland. In 1769, having noted the population’s devastation, Newfoundland authorities made killing a Beothuk a capital crime. But as Beothuk numbers continued to decline, authorities tried to capture them in hopes of saving them. One of the last captured was a woman named Shanawdithit. In 1823, her father had died from falling through ice while escaping a group of hunters. Shanawdithit, her sister and mother tried to escape capture, but the prospect of starvation eventually led them to surrender. Shanawdithit’s mother and sister died soon after their capture. Shanawdithit lived long enough to be moved to a home in St. John’s in 1828, and then into the home of Newfoundland’s Attorney General James Simms. But within a year, she contracted tuberculosis and died on June 6, 1829 in a hospital. Although other Beothuks may have survived, Shanawdithit’s death likely marked the extinction of her people. She was buried in St. John’s Church of England Cemetery.

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