The American Indians known as the Beothuk were the first people to live on the island of Newfoundland, which is now part of Canada. Their language, Beothukan, may be related to those languages of the Algonquian family, but some authorities believe that it was an independent language.
Little is known of Beothuk culture. The people were hunters and gatherers who were apparently divided into small bands of a few related families, each band having its own leader. They were skilled canoeists who speared seals with harpoons and fished for salmon and shellfish. Equally at home in the woods, the Beothuk tracked deer with bow and arrow. They used birch bark to make cooking pots and dome-shaped homes called wickiups (or wigwams). The Beothuk smeared red ochre on their skin, apparently for both religious reasons and for protection against insects. This habit is thought to be the source of the European reference to American Indians as “red” people, a label that is now generally considered offensive.
The Beothuk may have had contact with the Vikings, the earliest European visitors to North America, about ad 1000. In 1497 John Cabot, an Italian explorer in service to England, encountered the Beothuk tribe, which probably numbered no more than 500 people. In the following centuries the Beothuk were devastated by disease and by conflicts with Europeans and Mi’kmaq (Micmac) hunters crossing from Nova Scotia (Canada). A few survivors may have escaped to Labrador to intermarry with the Innu (Montagnais) people.