Shanawdithit

Shawnadithit
Born	Shanawdithit ca. 1801 Newfoundland
Died	June 6, 1829 (aged 27–28) St. John's, Newfoundland
Cause of death	tuberculosis
Other names	Shawnadithititis, Shawnawdithit, Nancy April
Known for	last Beothuk

Shanawdithit (ca. 1801 – June 6, 1829), also noted as Shawnadithititis, Shawnawdithit, Nancy April and Nancy Shanawdithit, was the last known living member of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland, Canada. Also remembered for drawings she made towards the end of her life, Shawnawdithit was in her late twenties when she died of tuberculosis in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Shanawdithit was born near a large lake on the island of Newfoundland in about 1801, a time when the Beothuk population was dwindling. Their traditional way of life was affected by encroaching European settlements on the island and they also suffered from European diseases against which they had little or no immunity. The Beothuks were also slowly being cut off from the sea, which was one of their food sources. Beothuks had long avoided Europeans. Trappers and furriers regarded the Beothuks as thieves and would sometimes attack them. As a child, Shanawdithit was shot by a white trapper while washing venison in a river. She suffered from the injury for some time, but recovered.

In 1819, Shanawdithit's aunt Demasduwit was taken by the British and the few remaining Beothuks fled. In the spring of 1823, Shanawdithit lost her father, who died after falling through ice. Most of her extended family had died from starvation, illness, exposure and British attacks. Sick and hungry, Shanawdithit, her mother and sister sought help from nearby trapper William Cull and the three women were taken to St. John's, Newfoundland, where Shanawdithit's mother and sister died of tuberculosis.

The British renamed Shanawdithit Nancy April and took her to Exploits Island where she worked as a servant in the household of John Peyton Jr and learned some English. Beginning in September 1828, she lived for some time in the household of William Eppes Cormack, a Scots emigrant, Newfoundland entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded the Beothuk Institution to study the tribe and drew funds from it to help support Shanawdithit. He recorded much of what she told him about her people and added notes to her drawings. Shanawdithit stayed in Cormack's care until early 1829. The government hoped she would become a bridge to her people, but she refused to leave with any expedition, saying the Beothuks would kill anyone who had been with the Europeans, as a kind of religious sacrifice and redemption for those who had been killed.

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