Death of Shawnadithit, last of the Beothuk

June 6, 2017

Sketches of Beothuk life, Shawnadithit, 1820s. The Rooms, DRW-VIII

June 6, 1829

In April 1823, Newfoundland trappers in Badger Bay captured three Beothuk women — a mother and two daughters. The women were in a state of starvation and, of the three, only the 23-year-old Shawnadithit survived. She spent the remaining six years of her life at Exploits Island and in St. John’s, contributing to white society’s meagre knowledge of the Beothuk, who had been utterly wiped out as a result of European settlement. Shawnadithit suffered from tuberculosis, like her mother and sister; she died on June 6, 1829. The last of the Beothuk had perished.

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