Introduction History Daily Life Culture Bibliography Craft History Losing a Way of Life The Beothuk never used to live in one place for very long. They would travel to the coast in the spring and summer to fish, and move to the interior away from the harsh winds to hunt in the fall and winter. When it was time for the animals or fish to have their babies or lay their eggs, they stopped hunting or fishing those animals. This was to make sure there would always be new animals or fish being born to take the place of the ones they killed. When the Beothuk were forced into the interior however, they had to hunt and fish always in one place. This broke a cycle that had evolved over thousands of years between them and the animals. As well, the Beothuk could no longer hunt and fish the marine life from the ocean. Whenever the Beothuk went near the ocean, English fisherman would shoot at them. The end result was starvation for the Beothuk people. The End of the Beothuk In 1768, the Governor of Newfoundland, Hugh Pallaser, sent a man named John Cartwright to investigate what was happening to the Beothuk. Cartwright was horrified by what he heard. The Beothuk and the fishermen did not have a good relationship. Fisherman bragged about how many Beothuk they were able to kill, even though it was against the law to kill Beothuk. However, the greatest threat to the Beothuk was not the fisherman, but the furriers. The furriers were men who went deep into the woods to trap animals in order to sell their fur. The furriers had learned the skills of expert woodsmen, and were not afraid of being in the forest. They could track Beothuk as well as they could track caribou. These furriers are said to have hunted the Beothuk and killed them, as a result of the bad relationship that had grown up between the two peoples. Some say that | |
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