Editing Beothuk (section)

== Notable Beothuk captives ==
Several Beothuk were captured by settlers from the [[Newfoundland Colony]] during the early 19th century.

=== Demasduit ===
[[File:Demasduit.jpg|thumb|upright|Demasduit, 1819]]
{{Main|Demasduit}}

Demasduit was a Beothuk woman, about 23 years old at the time she was captured by a party led by the fisherman John Peyton Sr. near Beothuk Lake in March 1819.<ref name="Griffin">{{cite news |last=Griffin |first=Kevin |date=March 3, 2019 |title=Beothuk 'genocide' remembered 200 years after kidnapping and murder |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/beothuk-genocide-remembered-200-years-after-kidnapping-and-murder |work=[[The Vancouver Sun]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221009140236/https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/beothuk-genocide-remembered-200-years-after-kidnapping-and-murder |archive-date=October 9, 2022}}</ref>

The governor of the Newfoundland Colony was seeking to encourage trade and end hostilities with the Beothuk. He approved an expedition, to be led by the Scottish explorer [[David Buchan]], to recover a boat and other fishing gear foraged by the Beothuk. Buchan was accompanied by two soldiers; the Beothuk mistakenly thought Buchan had hostile intentions and killed and decapitated the soldiers accompanying him.

In 1819, an armed party led by Peyton Sr, totaling about nine men (including Peyton Jr.), came upon a Beothuk camp looking for stolen fishing gear. The Beothuk scattered, although Demasduit was unable to escape and begged for mercy, exposing her breasts to show she was a nursing mother with child. Her husband, [[Nonosabasut]], confronted Peyton Sr. and his party, attempting to negotiate for the release of his wife. Peyton Sr. refused and a scuffle broke out between him and Nonosabasut, resulting in the death of the latter.<ref name="Griffin"/> Peyton Sr. and his party took Demasduit to Twillingate, with her baby dying before they reached the settlement.<ref name="Griffin"/>

The settlers at the Newfound Colony named Demasduit ''Mary March'' after the month she was taken. Government agents took her to [[St. John's, Newfoundland]]. The colonial government hoped to make Demasduit comfortable while she was living in the colony so she might be a bridge between them and the Beothuk. Demasduit learned some [[English language|English]], and taught the settlers about 200 words of the Beothuk language. In January 1820, Demasduit was released to rejoin her people, but she died of [[tuberculosis]] on the voyage to Notre Dame Bay.

=== Shanawdithit ===
[[File:Shanawdithit (Boyd's Cove, NL) crop.jpg|thumb|upright|Statue of Shanawdithit in [[Boyd's Cove]]]]
{{Main|Shanawdithit}}

[[Shanawdithit]] was Demasduit's niece and the last known full-blooded Beothuk. In April 1823, she was in her early twenties. She, her mother, and sister sought food and help from a white [[trapper]], as they were starving. The three were taken to St. John's, but her mother and sister died of tuberculosis, an epidemic among the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]]. Called ''Nancy April'' by the settlers, Shanawdithit lived for several years in the home of John Peyton Jr. as a servant.

The explorer [[William Cormack]] founded the Beothuk Institute in 1827 to foster friendly dealings with the Beothuk and support their culture. His expeditions found Beothuk [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] but he also learned the society was dying out. Learning of Shanawdithit, in the winter 1828–1829, Cormack brought her to his centre so he could learn from her.<ref name="Howley">[https://www.mun.ca/rels/native/beothuk/beo2gifs/texts/shana2.html James P. Howley, F.G.S., "Drawings by Shanawdithit"], ''The Beothucks or Red Indians: The Aboriginal Inhabitants of Newfoundland'', Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]], 1915, Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador Website</ref> He drew funds from his institute to pay for her support.

Shanawdithit made ten drawings for Cormack, some of which showed parts of the island, and others illustrated Beothuk implements and dwellings, along with Beothuk notions and myths.<ref name="Howley" /> As she explained her drawings, she taught Cormack Beothuk vocabulary. She told him there were far fewer Beothuk than twenty years previously. To her knowledge, at the time she was taken, only a dozen Beothuk survived.<ref name="Howley" /> Despite medical care from the doctor [[William Carson]], Shanawdithit died of tuberculosis in St. John's on June 6, 1829. At the time, there was no European cure for the disease.