Shanawdithit Research Paper

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Shanawdithit was the last known survivor of the Beothuk from Newfoundland. As a child, she witnessed several encounters between the Beothuk and the British. Shanawdithit was born in Newfoundland in 1801, the same time the Beothuk population began to dwindle. They suffered the assimilation of their way of culture caused by encroaching British settlements, diseases they had no immunity to, and diminishing access to the sea, a main resource for food. The Beothuk had avoided the British for a very long time and British trappers regarded the Beothuk as thieves and sometimes attacked them. Shanawdithit was shot in the arm one time by a British trapper for washing venison in the river. In 1819, Shanawdithit’s aunt Demasduwit was captured by the British