BEOTHUK PLACE NAMES (Aguathuna):

With the death of Shanawdithit, also known as Shawnadithititis, Shawnawdithit, Nancy April and Nancy Shanawdithit, who died of tuberculosis in St. John's, Newfoundland on June 6, 1829, the Beothuk people were officially declared extinct.

There is little known about the language of the Beothuks, known as Beothukan, because as a group they tended to shy away from "foreigners" who were "invading" their land.

There is only one place name that is believed to be from the Beothuk language a few, however, have been added in recent time.

Handcock, in his article entitled "Nomenclature" cites the work of Seary who reported that there was only one toponym from Beothukan, that of Shannoc Brook.

A major tributary of the Exploits River, shannoc translates to mean "Mi'kmaq. As early as 1822 Shannoc Brook was recorded by the explorer William Cormack, but by 1888 in a geological survey, its present name, Noel Paul Brook appears.

Paul was a Mi'kmaq who had traplines in the area.

A couple of more recent names include the community of Aguathuna, mentioned before, possibly from the Beothuk agnathoonet or aquathoont, and Mary March Brook which is named after a Beothuk woman, Mary March (1796-1820) whose Beothukan name was Demasduit.

Below is the story of Mary March's capture by "white man".

In the fall of 1818, a small group of Beothuks had taken a boat and some fishing equipment at the mouth of the Exploits River [belonging to the European explorers].

The governor of the colony, Charles Hamilton, authorized an attempt to recover the stolen property. On March 1, 1819, John Peyton Jr. and eight armed men went up the Exploits River to Red Indian Lake in search of Beothuks and their equipment.

A dozen Beothuk fled the campsite, Demasduit among them. Bogged down in the snow, she exposed her breasts, a nursing mother, begging for mercy.

Demasduit was captured; Nonosbawsut, her husband and the leader of the group, was killed while attempting to prevent her capture. Her infant son died a few days after she was taken.

Peyton and his men were absolved of their murder by a grand jury in St. John's, the judge concluding that "[there was] no malice on the part of Peyton's party to get possession of any of [the Indians] by such violence as would occasion bloodshed".

Demasduit was taken to Twillingate and for a time lived with the Church of England priest, the Reverend John Leigh.

He learned that she was also called Shendoreth and Waunathoake, but he renamed her Mary March, after the Virgin Mary and the month in which she was kidnapped.

Demasduit was brought to St. John's and spent much of the spring of 1819 in St. John's, brought there by Leigh and John Peyton Jr..... During the summer of 1819, a number of attempts were made to return her to her people, without success.

Captain David Buchan was to go overland to Red Indian Lake with Demasduit in November, the people of St. John's and Notre Dame Bay having raised the money to return the Beothuk to her home.

She died of tuberculosis at Ship Cove (now Botwood) aboard Buchan's vessel Grasshopper, on 8 January 1820.

Her body was left in a coffin on the lakeshore, where it was found by members of her tribe and returned to her village in February.

She was placed in a burial hut beside her husband and child. There were only thirty- one of the Beothuk remaining at that time.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/Aguathuna