Marshall (honorary research associate with the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Memorial U., Canada) documents the history of Newfoundland's indigenous Beothuk people, from their first encounter with Europeans in the 1500s to their demise in 1829 with the death of Shanawdithit, the last survivor. The second part provides a comprehensive ethnographic review of the Beothuk. Ample bandw illustrations with a few in color. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The supposed extinction of the Indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland in the first half of the nineteenth century is a foundational moment in Canadian history. In Tracing Ochre, Fiona Polack and a diverse group of contributors interrogate and expand upon changing perceptions of the Beothuk.

In elegant, sensual prose, Michael Crummey crafts a haunting tale set in Newfoundland at the turn of the 19th century. A richly imagined story about love, loss and the heartbreaking compromises—both personal and political—that undermine lives, River Thieves is a masterful debut novel. Published in Canada and the United States, it joins a wave of classic literature from eastern Canada, including the works of Alistair MacLeod, Wayne Johnston and David Adams Richards, while resonating at times with the spirit of Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain and Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy. An enthralling story of passion and suspense, River Thieves captures both the vast sweep of history and the intimate lives of a deeply emotional and complex cast of characters caught in its wake.

A history of the Beothuk of Newfoundland. Exciting in its detail, this book gives us a rare picture of a lost people whose culture was destroyed after the arrival of white settlers.

These selections date from early contact of the native peoples of Atlantic Canada with, among others, Norse sailors, and a French priest in 1612. Some excerpts look at the now-extinct Beothuk people of Newfoundland, but most pertain to the Micmac peoples.

The well-known story of the Beothuk is that they were an isolated people who, through conflict with Newfoundland settlers and Mi’kmaq, were made extinct in 1829. Narratives about the disappearance of the Beothuk and the reasons for their supposed extinction soon became entrenched in historical accounts and the popular imagination. Beothuk explores how the history of a people has been misrepresented by the stories of outsiders writing to serve their own interests – from Viking sagas to the accounts of European explorers to the work of early twentieth-century anthropologists. Drawing on narrative theory and the philosophy of history, Christopher Aylward lays bare the limitations of the accepted Beothuk story, which perpetuated but could never prove the notion of Beothuk extinction. Only with the integration of Indigenous perspectives, beginning in the 1920s, was this accepted story seriously questioned. With the accumulation of new sources and methods – archaeological evidence, previously unexplored British and French accounts, Mi’kmaq oral history, and the testimonies of Labrador Innu and Beothuk descendants – a new historical reality has emerged. Rigorous and compelling, Beothuk demonstrates the enduring power of stories to shape our understanding of the past and the impossibility of writing Indigenous history without Indigenous storytellers.

This comprehensive survey of indigenous languages of the New World introduces students and general readers to the mosaic of American Indian languages and cultures and offers an approach to grasping their subtleties. Authors Silver and Miller demonstrate the complexity and diversity of these languages while dispelling popular misconceptions. Their text reveals the linguistic richness of languages found throughout the Americas, emphasizing those located in the western United States and Mexico while drawing on a wide range of other examples from Canada to the Andes. It introduces readers to such varied aspects of communicating as directionals and counting systems, storytelling, expressive speech, Mexican Kickapoo whistle speech, and Plains sign language. The authors have included the basics of grammar and historical linguistics while emphasizing such issues as speech genres and other sociolinguistic issues and the relation between language and worldview. American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts is a comprehensive resource that will serve as a text in undergraduate and lower-level graduate courses on Native American languages and provide a useful reference for students of American Indian literature or general linguistics. It also introduces general readers interested in Native Americans to the amazing diversity and richness of indigenous American languages.

Extremely distant and distinct indigenous communities have over recent decades become more like themselves and more like each other – a paradox prevalent globally but inadequately explained by established analytical frames, particularly with regard to religion. Addressing this rich and unfolding context, the Handbook of Indigenous Religion(s) engages a wide variety of locations and perspectives. Drawing upon the efforts of a diverse group of scholars working at the intersection of indigenous studies and religious studies, this volume includes a programmatic introduction that argues for new ways of conceptualizing the field of indigenous religion(s), numerous case study-based examples, and an Afterword by Thomas Tweed.