In both articles the Beothuk were presented as a people who were under threat from European settlement. Dwindling access to coastal food resources, volatile association and resistance with the settlers and the ultimate expansion of the European settlement, forcing the migration of the Beothuk into the interior, demonstrates the compromised way of life for the Beothuk people. Holly goes on to explore the idea of the Beothuk being active participants, making decisions that would impact their lives and those impeding on their territory. Instead of trading or befriending the settlers, the Beothuk took to resisting against. The Beothuk and the European Settler were able to exist independently of one another. Finally the migration to the interior of the Island of Newfoundland had a grave impact on the quality of existence for the Beothuk. Both Holly and Pastore elaborate on European Settlement as devastating the Beothuk way of life, ultimately leading to their extinction.
Unable to survive as they had, the Beothuk targeted the European settlers as a threat to their existence and contact became usually hostile in nature.[1] The European Settlers were well armed and monopolized any area that was abundant in resources. Shorelines and salmon rich rivers were pillaged. With salmon being one of the Beothuks main food sources, this depletion and monopoly of such a vital lifeline was cause for retaliation.[2] Both Holly and Pastore argue that the Beothuk and the European Settler had little need for one another. The Beothuk did not trade furs, therefore the Settlers were made to become self-reliant and the Beothuk did not need to trade for metals as they were able to scavenge the abandoned fishing stations which offered up a treasure trove of nails, metal and whatever posed useful.[3] Newfoundland’s interior was where the Beothuk eventually migrated to, which is argued by both Pastore and Holly as being the main reason for their extinction. This is due to the lack of year round food sources. Pastore explains how the island of Newfoundland lacked many of the inland food sources that are considered “fall-back” species such as moose, deer and porcupine which are readily found on the mainland. Without these food sources all year round, the Beothuk were at risk of starvation.[4]
The arguments by both Holly and Pastore regarding the demise of the Beothuk people are believable. Pastore presents diagrams depicting the seasonal availability of food, migration routes and historical Beothuk coastal settlement maps and Holly provides nearly eleven pages of sources that he has used to gather his evidence. Both provide the reader with a clear understanding of how the European settlers and the Beothuk people did not require one another, ultimately leading the less sophisticated group of the Beothuk to retreat to a region that did not allow for their continued survival and eventuated in their extinction.
[1] Donald Holly, “The Beothuk on the Eve of their Extinction,” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 8-9.
[2] Donald Holly, “The Beothuk on the Eve of their Extinction,” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 3.
[3] Donald Holly, “The Beothuk on the Eve of their Extinction,” Arctic Anthropology 37, no. 1 (2000): 4. Ralph Pastore, “The Collapse of the Beothuk World,” Acadiensis 19, no. 1 (Fall 1989): 57-58.
[4] Ralph Pastore, “The Collapse of the Beothuk World,” Acadiensis 19, no. 1 (Fall 1989): 53-54.