Editing Beothuk (section)

== Extinction ==
Population estimates of Beothuks remaining at the end of the first decade of the 19th century vary widely, from about 150 up to 3,000.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA147 147]}} Information about the Beothuk was based on accounts by the woman [[Shanawdithit]], who told about the people who "wintered on the Exploits River or at Red Indian Lake and resorted to the coast in Notre Dame Bay". References in records also noted some survivors on the Northern Peninsula in the early 19th century.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA208 208]}}

During the colonial period, the Beothuk people allegedly endured territorial pressure from other Indigenous groups: Mi'kmaq migrants from [[Cape Breton Island]],<ref name="visit2013"/>{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|p=119}} and [[Inuit]] from Labrador. "The Beothuk were unable to procure sufficient subsistence within the areas left to them."<ref name="Kuch" /> It has been alleged that French bounties induced the Mi'kmaq to kill Beothuk. This is, however, disputed by most historians and has since come to be known as the "Mercenary Myth".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hillier |first1=Bernice |title=There's nothing to prove it, but Mi'kmaw mercenary myth persists, say researchers |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/mi-kmaw-mercenary-myth-colonial-history-school-textbooks-1.6073752 |access-date=September 5, 2022 |work=[[CBC News]] |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] |date=June 21, 2021}}</ref>{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=115–116}}

Beothuk numbers dwindled rapidly due to a combination of factors, including:<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mun.ca/relstudies/ |title=Department of Religious Studies |website=[[Memorial University of Newfoundland]] |language=en-CA |access-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-date=April 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410121756/http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/acampbell/pla/PLA07.HTM |url-status=live}}</ref>
* loss of access to important food sources, from the competition with and displacement by European settlers;
* infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, such as [[smallpox]], introduced by European contact;
* [[Endemic (epidemiology)|endemic]] [[tuberculosis]] (TB), which weakened tribal members;
* violent encounters with trappers and settlers.

By 1829, with the death of Shanawdithit, the people were declared extinct.<ref name="newfoundland1969" />{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=87}}

=== Claims of Modern Survivors ===

Oral histories suggest a few Beothuk survived around the region of the [[Exploits River]], [[Twillingate]], Newfoundland and Labrador; and formed unions with European colonists, Inuit and Mi'kmaq.{{sfn|Marshall|1996|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ckOav3Szu7oC&pg=PA224 224–226]}} Some families from Twillingate claim descent from the Beothuk people of the early 19th century.

In 1910, a 75-year-old Indigenous woman named Santu Toney claimed she was the daughter of a Mi'kmaq mother and a Beothuk father. She recorded a song in the Beothuk language for the American [[anthropologist]] [[Frank Speck]]. He was conducting field studies in the area. She said her father taught her the song.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hewson |first1=John |last2=Diamond |first2=Beverley |date=January 2007 |title=Santu's Song |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NFLDS/article/view/10104/10366 |url-status=dead |journal=Newfoundland and Labrador Studies |publisher=Memorial University's Faculty of Arts |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=227–257 |issn=1715-1430 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405033724/https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NFLDS/article/view/10104/10366 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |access-date=March 24, 2016}}</ref>

Since Santu Toney was born about 1835, this may be evidence some Beothuk people survived beyond the death of Shanawdithit in 1829. Contemporary researchers tried to transcribe the song, as well as improve the recording by current methods. Native groups learned the song to use in celebrations of tradition.<ref name="Perry">{{cite news |url=http://www.lportepilot.ca/News/2008-09-10/article-1423205/Santus-Song/1 |last=Perry |first=S.J. |title=Santu's Song: Memorable day for Beothuk Interpretation Centre |work=Porte Pilot |date=September 10, 2008 |access-date=January 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120309041803/http://www.lportepilot.ca/News/2008-09-10/article-1423205/Santus-Song/1 |archive-date=March 9, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Genocide ===

Scholars disagree in their definition of "[[genocide]]" in relation to the Beothuk.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002110956 |last=Rubinstein |first=W.D. |title=Genocide and Historical Debate: William D. Rubinstein Ascribes the Bitterness of Historians' Arguments to the Lack of an Agreed Definition and to Political Agendas |journal=History Today |volume=54 |year=2004 |access-date=August 24, 2017 |archive-date=January 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130131211914/http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5002110956 |url-status=dead}}</ref> While some scholars believe that the Beothuk died out as an unintended consequence of European colonization, others argue that Europeans conducted a sustained campaign of genocide against them.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{cite book |first1=Richard Paul |last1=Knowles |title=Modern Drama: Defining the Field |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=2003 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=dqTz89_fFjgC&pg=PA169 169] |isbn=978-0-8020-8621-1 |last2=Tompkins |first2=Joanne |last3=Worthen |first3=William B.}}
| {{harvnb|Harring|2021|p=85}}
| {{harvnb|Cormier|2017|pp=39–60}}
| {{harvnb|Adhikari|2023|pp=115–116, 129–131}}
}}</ref> 

Writing in 1766, Governor [[Hugh Palliser]] reported to the British secretary of state that "''the barbarous system of killing prevails amongst our people towards the Native Indians — whom our People always kill, when they can meet them''".{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=87}}

If such a campaign did occur, it was explicitly without official sanction after 1769, any such action thereafter being in violation of Governor [[John Byron]]'s proclamation that "''I do strictly enjoin and require all His Majesty's subjects to live in amity and brotherly kindness with the native savages'' [Beothuk] ''of the said island of Newfoundland''",<ref name="visit2013">{{cite web |url=http://visitnewfoundland.ca/beothuk.html |title=The Beothuk of Newfoundland |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=January 5, 2013 |website=visitnewfoundland.ca |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130108130959/http://visitnewfoundland.ca/beothuk.html |archive-date=January 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013}}</ref> as well as the subsequent Proclamation issued by Governor [[John Holloway (Royal Navy officer)|John Holloway]] on July 30, 1807, which prohibited mistreatment of the Beothuk and offered a reward for any information on such mistreatment.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/naval-john-holloway.php |title=Holloway, John (1744–1826) |author=<!--Not stated--> |date = August 2000 |website=Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Website |access-date= December 3, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405234723/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/naval-john-holloway.php |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |quote=}}</ref> 

Adhikari comments how the intentional nature of the destructive violence from colonizers is part of the evidence that makes this a case of genocide.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=129–130}} Harring draws parallels between the genocidal violence inflicted upon the Beothuk and the [[Black War|genocidal violence]] inflicted upon the [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]],{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=85}} and that the government's knowledge of such violence while not actively preventing and stopping it implies a tacit approval of the violence.{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=85}}

Adhikari collects various accounts of mass violence conducted by Europeans against the Beothuk, the most infamous of which is a raid that occurred in winter 1789.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=123–126}} This was led by [[John Peyton (fisherman)|John Peyton Sr.]], who was involved in many acts of violence against the Beothuk.<ref>{{cite DCB |ID=3069 |name=Peyton, John |last=Handcock |first=W. Gordon |volume=6}}</ref> Peyton along with two others fired upon a band of 50 Beothuk with buckshot, killing many while injuring all others.  Some injured individuals were physically beaten to death after being shot; any others were left to die from their injuries or freeze to death.{{sfn|Adhikari|2023|pp=125–126}}{{sfn|Harring|2021|p=86}}