This astounding novel fully deserves to be called a saga. It begins a thousand years ago in the time of the Vikings in Newfoundland. It is crammed with incidents of war and peace, with fights to the death and long nights of lovemaking, and with accounts of the rise of local clan chiefs and the silent fall of great distant empires. Out of the mists of the past it sweeps forward eight hundred years, to the lonely death of the last of the Beothuk. The Beothuk, of course, were the original native people of Newfoundland, and thus the first North American natives encountered by European sailors. Noticing the red ochre they used as protection against mosquitoes, the sailors called them "Red-skins," a name that was to affect an entire continent. As a people, they were never understood. Until now. By adding his novelist's imagination to his knowledge as an anthropologist and a historian, Bernard Assiniwi has written a convincing account of the Beothuk people through the ages. To do so he has given us a mirror image of the history rendered by Europeans. For example, we know from the Norse Sagas that four slaves escaped from the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. What happened to them? Bernard Assiniwi supplies a plausible answer, just as he perhaps solves the mystery of the Portuguese ships that sailed west in 1501 to catch more Beothuk, and disappeared from the paper records forever. The story of the Beothuk people is told in three parts. "The Initiate" tells of Anin, who made a voyage by canoe around the entire island a thousand years ago, encountering the strange Vikings with their "cutting sticks" and their hair "the colour of dried grass." His encounters with whales, bears, raiding Inuit and other dangers, and his survival skills on this epic journey make for fascinating reading, as does his eventual return to his home where, with the help of his strong and active wives, he becomes a legendary chief, the father of his people.

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.

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

A wonderful history of the Red Indians of Newfoundland. Exciting in its detail, this book shares all available information conce ing every aspect of Beothuk life-housing, clothing, hunting methods, arts and social life. Ingeborg Marshall gives us a rare picture of a lost people whose culture was completely destroyed after the arrival of white settlers.

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.

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.

Inspired by True Events Long after Demasduit's skull has been stolen from her grave, and years after Shanawdithit has died, one Beothuk and his family survive. Bursting out of the pages of Newfoundland history appears Kop, the last true Beothuk. When all the other members of his tribe are exterminated by the Europeans, Kop seeks revenge against the Unwanted Ones. Hidden among the Bear Clan of the Mi'kmaq, the Beothuk strikes back. Follow Kop on his trail of defiance against the European marauders upon his Island. See what becomes of a man who has nothing to lose or live for. Stay with him on a hundred trails and sit with him across the smoke of a hundred campfires. You will not only weep for the last Beothuk--you will cheer him on as he pushes back against the Unwanted Ones.

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.

The series Genocide and Mass Violence in the Age of Extremes wants to provide an interdisciplinary forum for research on mass violence and genocide during the "short" 20th century. It will highlight the role of state and non-state actors, the perspectives of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, and put violent events of the Age of Extremes in a larger political, social, and most important, cultural context. Anthologies and monographs will provide academic and non-academic readers with a deep insight into and a better understanding for the reasons, the acts, and the consequences or mass violence and genocide from a global perspective. Titles of the series will be published in print and OPEN ACCESS. Advisory Board: Omer Bartov (Brown University) Wolfgang Benz (TU Berlin) Elissa Bemporad (Queens College, CUNY) Nida Kirmani (LUMS, Pakistan) Thomas Kühne (Clark University) Michael Pfeifer (John and Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY) Jürgen Zimmerer (University of Hamburg)