Indian Point, Red Indian Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador

Indian Point is situated in the interior of the island of Newfoundland and was once a Beothuk camp inhabited during winter months of the year. In the autumn, Beothuk families left the seacoast and returned to this camp to live in well-built dwellings known as mamateeks until the spring. Here, they hunted caribou using extensive drive systems of fences to intercept migrating herds. Venison and other foods preserved for winter use were kept in storage huts built alongside their dwellings. Occupied for many generations, this site was abandoned around 1820. It is among the best documented Beothuk sites, with records left by Lieutenant John Cartwright in 1768 and by the Beothuk woman Shanawdithit in 1828-29, and it has been studied by archaeologists since the 1970s.

Occupied for at least 2,000 years, Indian Point was first used by the ancestors of the Beothuk whom archaeologists refer to as the Little Passage peoples. Whether it was lived in every year or intermittently is unknown. Most prevalent at Indian Point is evidence of the Beothuk dating from the 17^th to the late 18^th century, including artifacts of stone and bone, but also of European iron. In the 1980s, the earthen foundation of a six-sided house was discovered. It features the remains of seating and sleeping platforms surrounding a central hearth. Since the mid-1800s, the site has been damaged by forestry activities, changing water levels, and by modern developments. However, recent archaeological work recorded the remains of other hearths associated with fire-cracked rock and burned caribou bone that represent long-ago camp fires and food processing activities.

In 1768, Newfoundland’s Naval Governor Hugh Palliser commissioned Lieutenant John Cartwright to meet with Beothuk in an effort to establish relations. Cartwright travelled to the Indian Point area following the Exploits River, noting Beothuk dwellings, storehouses, and caribou fences throughout. He met no Beothuk because they were probably at their coastal camps. By the early 19^th century, this population was known to be reduced to a small group who lived in the interior, impacted by introduced diseases and the takeover of traditional resource areas along the coast and at river mouths by European newcomers. In 1828-29, William Epps Cormack encouraged Shanawdithit, the last known surviving member of the group (designated a person of national historic significance in 2000), to draw story-maps of her people’s history and customs. Her work confirmed that Indian Point was part of an important Beothuk settlement area. She drew images of Beothuk winter and summer mamateeks and other structures, a variety of animal food items, a woman in what appears to be a dancing dress, and of objects that Cormack named “Emblems of Mythology.” Although other Beothuk camps have been found and studied by archaeologists, Indian Point was the first to reveal something of Beothuk life in the interior of Newfoundland and of the long cultural continuity of this culture.

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