Demasduit

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Portrait of Demasduit (Mary March) , by Henrietta Hamilton , 1819 (Library and Archives Canada)
The capture of Demasduit, drawn by her niece Shanawdithit , is sketched in the upper part; Buchan's landing in 1810/11 is described in a second scene.

Demasduit or Demasduwit (* probably 1796; † January 8, 1820 ), also called Shendoreth, Waunathoake, Mary March, was one of the last known European survivors of the Beothuk living in Newfoundland . She was captured in 1819 during a retaliation and research expedition by the British.

Life

In September 1818, a small group of Beothuk looted John Peyton Jr.'s salmon fishing boat, which lay on the Exploits River near the northeast coast of Newfoundland . The Governor and Vice Admiral Sir Charles Hamilton responded to this and similar complaints with an expedition whose task was to find the stolen items. She should also move to the Red Indian Lake inland and establish friendly contacts with the few Beothuk still living there. Previous expeditions, such as John Cartwright's in 1768 and David Buchan's winter 1810-11, had done a similar job, but had failed.

The leaders of the search expedition of 1819 were John Peyton and his father of the same name. Heavily armed fur hunters formed the team that pulled the frozen Exploits River inland on March 1, 1819. They reached Red Indian Lake four days later. There they met three wigwams , but the twelve or so people fled into the surrounding woods or over the ice. John Peyton Jr. pursued one of the women as she bared her breasts in a gesture of submission. It was Demasduit. Another prisoner was her husband Nonosbawsut. Despite all efforts, both sides were unable to overcome the language barriers. Nonosbawsut apparently tried to obtain the release of his wife, a desperate scuffle broke out until one of the hunters stabbed the Beothuk with a bayonet and shots were fired. Probably the last integrating figure of the small Beothuk group was killed. A few days later, Demasduit's infant died.

The objects they were looking for were found, and the prisoners were taken away. They tried to escape several times. The young woman was abducted to Twillingate and handed over to the Anglican missionary John Leigh. She was named "Mary March" after the month of her capture and stayed in town for several months. She also visited the governor's house, where the lady of the house, Lady Henrietta Hamilton, made a portrait that is now in the National Archives . Demasduit seemed kind and smart to everyone, but her husband's killers were acquitted on May 25 by the St. John's grand jury .

Influential residents of St. John's and Notre Dame Bay wanted to bring the prisoners back to their people. The return journey began on June 3, 1819, Leigh boarded at Trinity . Several attempts were made to hand them over to known summer camps between June 18 and July 14, but they failed. In Leigh's care, she came first to Fogo , then back to Twillingate. This allowed Leigh to write a vocabulary book while talking to the prisoner.

In September 1819 David Buchan came aboard the Grasshopper to Notre Dame Bay. His job was to bring the prisoner back. This should be done in winter this time when the frozen ground and waters made traveling easier. The ship was supposed to take Demasduit there, and so she went on board. But she fell ill with tuberculosis and died on January 8, 1820.

Buchan decided on his own authority to bring her corpse along with John Peyton Jr. and 50 sailors and some fur hunters to Red Indian Lake. The few still living, hidden Beothuk, including the niece of the dead, Shawnandithit, observed their arrival on February 9, 1820. The men honored the corpse in a wigwam and left the place towards the coast. As Shawnandithit later described William Eppes Cormack, the deceased was buried together with her murdered husband Nonosbawsut. In November 1828, Cormack saw her final resting place during the unsuccessful search expedition for the last living Beothuk.

Impact history

JP Howley collected the sources for Demasduit and published them in 1915. In doing so, he included the traditional statements of the few eyewitnesses, such as those of John Peyton Jr., John Leigh and a Mr. Curtis as well as Shawnandithit's account. They are the only sources of Demasduit's life.

In 1997 the Beothuk Institute was established to study the culture and history of the Beothuk.

In 2006, students at the Mary March School in Grand Falls-Windsor requested that their school be renamed Demasduit School .

literature

  • Ingeborg Marshall: The miniature portrait of Mary March , in: Newfoundland Quarterly, 73,3 (1977) 4-7
  • Christian Hardy, Ingeborg Marshall: A new portrait of Mary March , in: Newfoundland Quarterly, 76.1 (1980) 25-28.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Charlotte Gray: 'The Museum Called Canada: 25 Rooms of Wonder', Random House, 2004.


personal data
SURNAME Demasduit
ALTERNATIVE NAMES March, Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Newfoundland Indian, one of the last of the Beothuk people
DATE OF BIRTH around 1796
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1820
Place of death Bay of Exploits, Newfoundland