What is a tradition and customs for the Beothuks?

Answer 1

We know very little about the tradition and customs of the Beothuks because they were killed off. As a result we have limited records and most of those are from limited, often hostile, interactions.

We do know that they covered themselves with Red Ocher, an iron rich muddy paste, and they liked red cloth. So red was important, possibly having religious significance.

They were never large in number, maybe a couple thousand at the most and kept mobile. They did not stay together in large numbers and were wary of other people.

They had good reason for this. They were isolated on one island, a large one but still an island. This was almost certainly a defensive choice as they were under constant threat of extermination from other, maybe all other Aboriginal groups in the area.

Whatever traditions and customs they had would be formed around the reality of continual hostility. Once their traditional enemies got firearms from the French and Europeans started to colonise the island their numbers began to fall.

Between Micmac (Mikmaq) massacres and being hunted and killed by Europeans they were down to a single family by the end of the 1700's. By then their only tradition and custom was trying to stay alive. Some people did think to help them, to learn about them but it was too little too late.

As a result we infer their culture to be similar to others in the area but details are limited.