Yesterday Linda, Susannah and I took a two hour drive to Boyds Cove to visit the Beothuck Museum. It was an amazing place to visit but also a very sad and spiritual place. The Beothuck people are no more, long ago wiped out by the greed and cruelty of the English and European settlers. They died of hunger, war and disease, the latter brought over by the white man. It strikes me as one of many more reasons for shame of the history of our ancestors. The Beothuck were an amazing people, they lived off the land and the sea and they wasted nothing. Unlike the settlers that only took what they saw as having value and destroyed what they didn’t understand. There is very little actual knowledge of the Beothuck, their history and culture. Most of what we know about them comes from archaeology digs at the recently discovery ancient settlement sites where they once thrived. One of the best sites found to date is at Boyds Cove. I beautiful clearing near the shore and a fresh water brook, and ideal site providing fresh water and an abundance of food, fish, caribou,wild berries and small animals. I felt a terrible sadness standing where these people had once lived. I felt the great shame of my ancestors and the evil deeds they committed on these innocent and once friendly natives, now gone forever. I suppose the question today is, have we learned from these dreadful mistakes of the past, alas, I somehow doubt it.
God Bless and keep reading.
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