The Natives in Placentia

Demasduwit(right), also called Mary March. She was captured by a party of furriers in 1818 and lived in St. John's for several months before dying of tuberculosis. In an attempt to show their peaceable intentions, authorities carried Demasduwit's corpse inland to an unoccupied Beothuk camp and left it, surrounded with gifts. Later the Indians buried the body. Demasduwit's portrait was painted by Lady Hamilton, wife of the governor of Newfoundland.

There were a number of different native groups residing in and visiting the Placentia Bay area during its early history. Although researchers have not been able to find a lot of proof to support this conviction they have found some evidence that natives were here. There were three natives living at Placentia in 1687; eight years later there was a family of eleven and possibly others living in the neighbourhood of the French fort.

The Little Passage Indians and their descendants, the Beothuks

South Coast including Placentia Bay: There is considerable archaeological and historical evidence to show that the Newfoundland South Coast was intermittently occupied by Little Passage Indians and their descendants, the Beothuks. The Beothuks continued to come to this coast until the end of the seventeenth century. Prehistoric Little Passage campsites have been found in Hermitage Bay, Bay d'Espair, and the area around Burgeo. Remains of Beothuk occupation have been excavated from sites at Couteau Bay, carbon dated ca A.D. 1500, and at lower Burgeo dated ca A.D. 1600. Two Beothuk graves have been recorded from Placentia Bay and one from Rencantre Island in the Lower Burgeo group. This last burial contained iron tools acquired from the Europeans.

Among the earliest documents that mention Newfoundland population is Crignon's account of a voyage by the brothers Jean and Raoul Parmentier in 1529. According to this account, the coast between Cape Race and Cape Breton was well populated by cruel and austere people with whom it was impossible to trade or converse. In 1594 when Placentia Bay had become a busy fishing centre, the native people who were presumed to have been Beothuk cut the mooring ropes of boats from the English fishing vessel Grace in the harbour of Pesmark, probably present day Presque, on the Burin Peninsula. Whether these Beothuks lived there permanently or had come there only to hunt or fish cannot be ascertained. John Guy, governor of the English Settlement at Cupids, mentioned in his diary that the Beothuks from Trinity were in the habit of going to Placentia Bay to catch salmon in the Come By Chance River. Another record stated that the crew from a Dutch vessel traded with Indians in St. Mary's Bay in 1666.

In an account of the Basque Mutiny in Placentia in 1690, it is documented that on August 20^th, a battle arose between the Basque seamen and a family of natives. A seaman was wounded by a young boy whose sister had been insulted. They took possession of the young boy and dragged him by the hair of the head and forced him to go on board a small vessel where they threatened to hang him until the Governor intervened.

A later reference to the presence of Beothuks on the South Coast can be found in a 1694 report by a French officer from the fort of Placentia. He encountered a group of native people, believed to have been Beothuk, in the southern part of the island. While Beothuks may have continued to come to some area on this coast, the records suggest that from the early eighteenth century and onwards they no longer exploited resources on a regular basis in Southern Newfoundland. There was also a family of 11 natives reported living near the Fort in Placentia.

The Beothuks

ST. JOHN'S, July I5th,1876.

Alexander Murray Esqr. F.G.S.

Sir,
In accordance with your request, and the instructions contained in a letter bearing date -? to visit and examine Spencer's Cove on the North east end of Long Island, I beg to state that I have complied with the request, and submit to you the following report, as the result of my investigation.

1ST. The specimens obtained by me, were found at the height of five feet above high water mark, in a deposit of black clay formed from the debris of the camps of the Indians. There are from eight to twelve inches of this deposit resting upon a bed of brown clay and pebbles.

2nd. Above the deposit in which the specimens were found, there are from twelve to fifteen inches of peat, formed from decomposed wood, and other vegetable matter. Immediately under this, and resting on the aforementioned deposit there is a layer of red slate. Although there were found a few of the arrow heads, etc., above the slate, the principal quantity was discovered beneath it.

I have not met with any trace of iron or iron rust, in any part of the ground. The iron axe found by Mr. Coffin on the clearing is of more recent date and has evidently been lost by some person engaged in cutting timber.

I have not met with any shells or organic remains in or below the superficial deposit; nor have I in any case met with charcoal except the burnt wood about the site of their fireplaces.

I do not think that it is probable that iron in any of its uses had been known to the Indians who inhabited the Island at that period, for had it been used by them, it would be impossible from the quantity of land now under cultivation there not to have met with some trace of it. I found the remains of a pot formed of stone, which goes far to prove that they employed stone for all the uses, for which more recently, iron has been substituted.

Some fifty or sixty years ago this place was covered with a heavy growth of timber, and judging from traces not yet totally destroyed, I was enabled to ascertain that the growth was of a large size, as many of the stumps measured from fifteen to eighteen inches through.

I found very few traces of bones, and even those were very much decomposed, and I am led to conjecture from the position of them, that they were the bones of inferior animals, being above the deposit of black clay and immediately beneath the peat formation.

I am not of opinion that the place was at all used as a burying ground, as if such were the case, I should have met with traces of bones beneath the surface.

The place has evidently been only used as a summer resort and a sort of factory for making and repairing tools and implements of warfare, as the traces amply testify, there being a large quantity of shavings and chips of stone which plainly shows that the manufacturing of tools has been extensively carried on here.

Mr. Coffin in turning up the soil previous to cultivation has met with numerous spear and arrow heads, gouges and stone axes, grinding or rubbing stones, all of which appear to have some defect, none being entirely perfect. Showing that when they left the place they took everything that might be of any service to them, and leaving only those that were of little or no importance. This in my opinion is proof positive that they left the island for some reason, with the intention of not returning to it again.

It is worthy of mention that the remains of the pot above referred to was found to be composed of steatite and is an importation, as there is no serpentine to be met within the neighborhood of Placentia Bay'.

(signed) ALBERT BRADSHAW.

Some other important evidence which support the fact that natives resided in Placentia are:

In the 1880's Warren/Dahl discovered a Beothuk burial site on Hangman's Island, Placentia Bay.

Many artifacts have been recovered which tell something of Beothuk culture. The Indians made arrow and harpoon heads from iron traded or pilfered from settlers and fishermen.The large harpoon head, tied to a line was set on a long shaft which detached once it plunged into an animal. Nearly 400 carved bone pieces have been found. They may represent animals or their spirits and would have been used in ceremonies or as hunting charms. Wampun was made of shells, clay pipe stems, bark and pieces or lead. It may have been used by a chief as a sign of authority.

The Beothuk Devil (62kb) also known as "The Black man or Red Indians' Devil" was apparently very short, with a large beard, and dressed in beaver skins.

In 1594, the crew of the Grace, an English fishing vessel, experienced hostile acts from Beothuk at Presque, Placentia Bay.

John Guy reported seeing eight or nine Savage Houses in several places, and a way cut into the woods, which being prosequed was found to lead directly to a harbour in Placentia Bay. The men who pursued the Indians path to its outcome in Placentia Bay found various artifacts and traces of Indians who were apparently in the habit of carrying their canoes overland to the bay. Around 1612 John Guy found a small copper kettle at a Beothuk fishing camp in Placentia.

Maritime or Archaic Indians and Palaeo-Eskimo

Carbon dating close to A.D. 950 showed a small Palaeo-Eskimo site in Placentia Bay. The Micmac arrived with d'Iberville.

In 1705 twenty-five Micmac families arrived in Placentia with the intention of establishing themselves in Newfoundland with French assistance. The rest of their people were expected in the coming spring. After the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the French were forced to leave their fort in Placentia. The Micmac, who had resided in Placentia and Fortune Bays, also abandoned this part of the coast. William Taverner, who surveyed the population and resources of the Newfoundland South Coast, thought that the Micmacs no longer came there because the departure of the French had deprived them of their trading partners, who supplied them with provisions and guns. They were now forced to obtain these things in Quebec.