Shanawdithit

Shanawdithit, the last known Beothuk, was captured, along with her sister and mother, near Badger Bay, Notre Dame Bay in the spring of 1823. She spent five years living in the home of John Peyton Jr. on Exploits Island and in September 1828 was taken to St. John’s where she lived for a time in the home of William Cormack, a founding member of the Boeothick Institution. The drawings done by Shanawdithit during her time in St. John’s and ethnographic information collected from her constitutes an invaluable source of information on Beothuk culture. Shanawdithit died on June 6, 1829 at about twenty-nine years of age and was buried in the Church of England graveyard on the south side of St. John’s harbour.