Shanawdithit
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Shanawdithit (c. 1801 – June 6, 1829), also referred to as Shawnadithit, Shawnawdithit, and Nancy April, was the last recorded surviving member of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland, Canada.
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[edit] Her Life
Shanawdithit was born circa 1801 near a large lake in Newfoundland.[1] At the time, the population of the Beothuk was dwindling. Their traditional way of life was affected by the establishment of white settlements on the island. Their access to the sea, a major food source, was slowly being cut off. Trappers and furriers regarded the Beothuks as thieves and attacked them to keep them away. As a child, Shanawdithit was shot by a trapper while washing venison in a river, though she was not severely injured and recovered.[1] Most significantly, the people suffered from infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), introduced by European contact, to which they had no immunity and for which the Europeans had no cures or prevention.
After the 1819 capture of Demasduwit, the aunt of Shanawdithit, the few remaining Beothuk people fled from the British. In the spring of 1823, Shanawdithit lost her father, who died after falling through the ice. Others of her extended family also died. Hungry and without protection, Shanawdithit, her mother and sister sought help from the nearest settler, a trapper named William Cull. The three women were taken to St. John's, Newfoundland. There Shanawdithit soon lost her mother and sister to TB.
Renamed Nancy April by the British, Shanawdithit was taken to Exploits Island. There she worked as a servant in the household of John Peyton, Jr. and learned some English. Beginning in September 1828, she lived for some time in the household of William Eppes Cormack, a Scots immigrant and Newfoundland entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded the Boeothick Institution to study the people and it helped to support Shanawdithit. He recorded much of what she told him about her people, and added notes to her drawings. Shanawdithit remained in Cormack's care until early 1829. Although the government hoped she would become a bridge to her people, she refused to accompany any expedition. She said the Boethuks would sacrifice any Native who had had contact with the Europeans, as a kind of religious redemption for those who had been killed.[2]
After Cormack left Newfoundland to return to Great Britain, he stayed for some time in Liverpool with John McGregor, a Scots immigrant whom he had known in Canada. Cormack shared with McGregor much of his materials on the Boethuks.[3] Shanawdithit was transferred to the care of the attorney general James Simms. She spent the remaining nine months of her life at his home.
Shanawdithit had been in precarious health from consumption (TB) for a number of years and continued to deteriorate. She was seen a good deal during this period by William Carson, who tended her in her last illness but had no cure. She died of tuberculosis in a St. John's hospital in 1829.
After her death, the skull of Shanawdithit was presented to the Royal College of Physicians in London for study. In 1938, they turned it over to the Royal College of Surgeons; it was destroyed in damage from the German bombing of London of World War II. The rest of her remains were buried in the graveyard of St. Mary the Virgin Church on the south side of St. John's.
In 1903 the graveyard was dismantled for railway construction. A monument on the site reads: “This monument marks the site of the Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin during the period 1859 - 1963. Fishermen and sailors from many ports found a spiritual haven within its hallowed walls. Near this spot is the burying place of Nancy Shanawdithit, very probably the last of the Beothuks, who died on June 6, 1829.”
Shanawdithit is well known to Newfoundlanders; in 1851, the local paper the Newfoundlander called her “a princess of Terra Nova”. In 1999, The Telegram readers voted her the most notable Aboriginal person of the past 1,000 years; she captured 57% of the total votes.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Forster 2004, p. 233
- ^ Anonymous (James McGregor), "Shaa-naan-dithit, or The Last of The Boëothics", Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. XIII, No LXXV (March 1836): 316-323 (Rpt. Toronto: Canadiana House, 1969), Memorial University of Labrador & Newfoundland Website, accessed 16 Feb 2009
- ^ Anonymous (James McGregor), "Shaa-naan-dithit, or The Last of The Boëothics", Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. XIII, No LXXV (March 1836): 316-323 (Rpt. Toronto: Canadiana House, 1969), Memorial University of Labrador & Newfoundland Website, accessed 16 Feb 2009
[edit] References
- Forster, Merna (2004). 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces. Toronto: The Dundurn Group. pp. 233–236. ISBN 1-55002-514-7.
[edit] External links
- "Shanawdithit", Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- 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
- Appendix: "Letter from the Lordbishop of Nova Scotia", S.P.G. Annual Report 1827, London: S.P.G. and C.&J. Rivington, 1828, 85-88, Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador Website
