Editing Demasduit (section)

==Biography==
Demasduit was born around 1796, near the end of the 18th century. It was once believed that the Beothuk population had been decimated by conflict with European settlers. However, the most reliable research{{by whom|date=September 2024}} today{{when|date=September 2024}} suggests{{citation needed|date=September 2024}} instead that the Beothuk population was very small, between 500 and 1,000 people at the time of European contact, and when European settlers arrived permanently, the Beothuk were cut off from their traditional coastal hunting grounds. Furthermore, there was no one to promote peaceful relations between the Beothuk and the settlers. As Newfoundland's population was small,{{quantify|date=September 2024}} a missionary effort could not be supported, and the European governments were mainly interested in marine resources, so no agents were appointed to liaise with the native population. Further contributing to the Beothuk's demise was the arrival of European diseases in North America.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-disappearance.php|title=Disappearance of the Beothuk|website=www.heritage.nf.ca|access-date=2019-10-21|archive-date=2019-10-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191021225039/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/aboriginal/beothuk-disappearance.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the fall of 1818, a small group of Beothuks had captured a boat and some fishing equipment near the mouth of the [[Exploits River]]. The governor of the colony, [[Charles Hamilton (governor)|Sir Charles Hamilton]], authorized an attempt to recover the stolen property. On March 1, 1819, [[John Peyton (fisherman)|John Peyton Jr.]] and eight armed men went up the Exploits River to [[Beothuk Lake]] in search of the Beothuks and their equipment. A dozen Beothuk fled the campsite, Demasduit among them. Bogged down in the snow, she exposed her breasts, a nursing mother, begging for mercy. [[Nonosabasut]], her husband and the leader of the group, was killed while attempting to negotiate for Demasduit’s release. Her infant son died two days after she was taken.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marshall |first=Ingeborg |title=History |url=https://beothukinstitute.ca/the-beothuk/history/ |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=beothukinstitute.ca |language=en-US}}</ref>

Peyton and his men were absolved of the murder of Nonosabasut by a grand jury in St. John's, the judge concluding that "[there was] no malice on the part of Peyton's party to get possession of any of [the Indians] by such violence as would occasion bloodshed".{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

Demasduit was taken to [[Twillingate, Newfoundland and Labrador|Twillingate]] and for a time lived with the [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] priest there, [[The Reverend|Rev.]] John Leigh. He learned that she was also called Shendoreth and Waunathoake, but he renamed her Mary March, after the [[Virgin Mary]] and the month in which she was kidnapped. 
Demasduit was brought to [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]] and spent much of the spring of 1819 in St. John's, brought there by Leigh and John Peyton Jr. While there, [[Henrietta Hamilton|Lady Hamilton]] painted her portrait.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Disappearance of the Beothuk |url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/indigenous/beothuk-disappearance.php |access-date=2023-09-27 |website=www.heritage.nf.ca}}</ref>

During the summer of 1819, a number of attempts were made to return her to her people, without success. Captain [[David Buchan]] was to go overland to Beothuk Lake with Demasduit in November, the people of St. John's and [[Notre Dame Bay]] having raised the money to return the Beothuk to her home. However, she was taken ill and died of [[tuberculosis]] at Ship Cove (now [[Botwood]]) aboard Buchan's vessel ''Grasshopper'', on 8 January 1820. Her body was left in a coffin on the lakeshore, where it was found by members of her tribe and returned to her village in February.<ref>MacLean, John. ''Canadian Savage People'', 1896. pp 318.</ref> Demasduit’s body was initially placed in a burial hut beside her husband and child, before her remains and her husband's were later removed by [[William Cormack]] and brought to Scotland, where eventually their remains were held in the [[National Museum of Scotland]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Cowan |first=Peter |date=26 May 2017 |title=Indigenous leaders unite for return of Beothuk remains, inclusion in MMIWG inquiry |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/indigenous-leaders-roundtable-1.4132582}}</ref>

There were only thirty-one of the Beothuk remaining at that time.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}