For example, in the initial chapter, he lays down some basic canoe-building terminology as he discusses the development of the Gander Bay boat and its similarities to the
Beothuk canoe.
After the interviews, a second set of essays turns to specific writers' work, beginning with an article first published in 1992 in which Dalton examines Newfoundland literary representations of the
Beothuk and their extirpation at the hands of the island's European colonizers.
This was no small feat as all the
Beothuk hunting and fishing techniques required large numbers of men; they had once built huge wedge-shaped deer fences many kilometers in length and, after beaters waving skins and tree branches drove them into the small enclosure at the apex, they were easily killed.
Ennis mentioned the
Beothuk of Newfoundland and the Innu of Davis Inlet to illustrate his point.
In "Nation, Indigenization, the
Beothuk: A Newfoundland Myth of Origin in Patrick Kavanagh's Gaff Topsails," Delisle contends that "Kavanagh's origin story reconfigures the colonial moment as a myth of indigenous birth" to produce a Newfoundland "national narrative" that inoculates Newfoundlanders from the "colonial exploiters" from which they are descended, and from the pervasive Canadian culture of which they eventually become a small part (Delisle 24).
William Eppes (2) Cormack is celebrated for his walk across the interior of the island of Newfoundland in 1822, and for his involvement with the
Beothuk: his collection of information about
Beothuk history and culture and his attempts to rescue the
Beothuk from extinction.
If it were possible, one could hear firsthand of this destructive relationship by talking to a
Beothuk, a Saco or a Norridgewalk.
(13) Ralph Pastore, "The Collapse of the
Beothuk World," Acadiensis 19, 1 (1989): 53.
5) In what province were the
Beothuk Indians exterminated in the 1800s?