Episode 13
45

Whatever Happened to the Beothuk?

Published August 14, 2025

We take a look at the Beothuk people in this episode from their ancient beginnings on the island of Newfoundland to their demise through disease, starvation, and murder. It is a tragic story of the effects of colonization on a small population on an unforgiving land.

About This Episode

We take a look at the Beothuk people in this episode from their ancient beginnings on the island of Newfoundland to their demise through disease, starvation, and murder. It is a tragic story of the effects of colonization on a small population on an unforgiving land.

Sources

Books:

Beothuk: How Story Made a People (Almost) Disappear by Christopher Patrick Aylward

A History and Ethnography of the Beothuk by Ingeborg Marshall

The Mi'kmaq: Resistance, Acommodation, and Cultural Survival by Harald E.L. Prins

Journal Articles:

Pastore, R. (1989). The Collapse of the Beothuk World. Acadiensis, 19(1), 52. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/view/12292

Gilbert, W. (2011). Beothuk-European Contact in the 16th Century:: A Re-evaluation of the Documentary Evidence. Acadiensis, 40(1), 24–44.

Holly, Donald H. “The Beothuk on the Eve of Their Extinction.” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 79–95. doi:10.2307/40316519.

Episode Info
Episode
13
Duration
45
Published
August 14, 2025