Beothuk 



The fourth group of Indians, classed here as 

 belonging to the eastern maritime area, are the 

 Beothuk of Newfoundland. Historically, perhaps, 

 these Indians should have been discussed first, as they 

 were probably the first of all North American Indians 

 to come into contact with the white man. However, 

 so little is knowTi about their canoes that it has seemed 

 better to place them last, since practically all that 

 can be said is the result of reconstruction, speculation, 

 and logic founded upon rather unsatisfactory evi- 

 dence. The tribal origin of the Beothuk has long 

 been a matter of argument; they are known to have 

 used red pigment on their weapons, equipment, 

 clothes, and persons. A prehistoric group that once 

 inhabited Maine and the Maritime Provinces appears 

 to have had a similar custom; these are known as the 

 "Red Paint People," and it may be that the Beothuk 

 were a survival of this earlier culture. But all that 

 can be said with certainty is that the Beothuk inhab- 

 ited Newfoundland and perhaps some of the Labrador 

 coast when the white man began to frequent those 

 parts. The Beothuk made a nuisance of themselves 

 by stealing gear from the European fishermen, and by 

 occasionally murdering individuals or small groups of 

 white men. Late in the 17th century, the French 

 imported some Micmac warriors and began a war of 

 extermination against the Beothuk. By the middle of 

 the 18 th century the Newfoundland tribe was reduced 

 to a few very small groups, and the Beothuk became 

 extinct early in the 19th century, before careful 

 investigation of their culture could be made. 



Their canoes were made to a distinctive model quite 

 different from that of the canoes of other North 

 American Indians. The descriptions available are far 

 from complete and, as a result, many important details 

 are left to speculation. Some parts of the more com- 

 plete descriptions are obscure and do not appear to 

 agree with one another. In spite of these difficulties, 

 however, some information on the canoes is rather 

 specific; by using this, together with a knowledge 

 of the requirements of birch-bark canoe construction, 

 and by reference to some toy canoes found in 1869 in 

 the grave of a Beothuk boy, a reasonably accurate 

 reconstruction of a canoe is possible. 



Captain Richard Whitbourne had come with Sir 

 Humphrey Gilbert to Newfoundland in 1580 and 

 revisited the island a number of times afterward. In 

 1612 he wrote that the Beothuk canoes were shaped 



"like the wherries of the River Thames," apparently 

 referring to the humped sheer of both; in the wherry 

 the sheer swept up sharply to the height of the oar 

 tholes, in profile, and flared outward, in cross section. 



John Gay, a member of the Company of New- 

 found-land Plantation, wrote in 1612 that Beothuk 

 canoes were about 20 feet long and 4)^ feet wide "in 

 the middle and aloft," that the ribs were like laths, 

 and that the birch-bark cover was sewn with roots. 

 The canoes carried four persons and weighed less than 

 a hundredweight. They had a short, light staff set in 

 each end by which the canoes could be lifted ashore. 

 "In the middle the canoa is higher a great deale, 

 than at the bowe and quarter." He also says of their 

 cross section: "They be all bearing from the keel to 

 portlesse, not with any circular, but with a straight, 

 line." 



Joann de Laet, writing about 1633, speaks of the 

 crescent shape of the canoes, of their "sharp keel" 

 and need of ballast to keep them upright; he also 

 states that the canoes were not over 20 feet long and 

 could carry up to five persons. 



The most complete description of the Beothuk canoe 

 was in the manuscript of Lt. John Cartwright, R.N., 

 who was on the coast of Newfoundland in 1767-1768 

 as Lieutenant of H.B.M. Ship Guernsey. However, 

 some portions are either in error or the description 

 was over-simplified. For example, Cartwright says 

 that the gunwales were formed with a distinct angle 

 made by joining two lengths of the main gunwale 

 members at the elevated middle of the sheer. This 

 hardly seems correct since such a connection would 

 not produce the rigidity that such structural parts 

 require, given the methods used by Indians to build 

 bark canoes. The three grave models show that the 

 sheer was actually curved along its elevated middle. 

 It is possible that Cartwright saw a damaged canoe 

 in which the lashings of the scarf of the gunwales 

 had slackened so that the line of sheer "broke" there. 

 Cartwright is perhaps misleading in his description 

 of the rocker of the keel as being "nearly, if not 

 exactly, the half of an ellipse, longitudinally divided." 

 The models show the keel to have been straight along 

 the length of the canoe and turned up sharply at the 

 ends to form bow and stern. Cartwright also states 

 the keel piece was "about the size of the handle of a 

 common hatchet" amidships, or perhaps 1 inch thick 

 and Xy^ inches wide, and tapered toward the ends, 

 which were about X inch wide and about equally 

 thick. The height of the sheer amidships was perhaps 

 two-thirds the height of the ends. 



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