Being a student that grew up on the West coast of Canada the story of the Beothuk was virtually unheard of. The only reason for many BC High school students having any knowledge on the topic would be from learning other own time. The thought of an entire culture of people being extinct makes many feel sick to their stomach. This reading brought to light some of the events that lead up to their extinction. This reading portrayed the interactions between the Beothuk and the Europeans in many different situations.

The first situation that was interesting was the way Beothuk retaliated against the Europeans when large fisheries were set up. Salmon fishing being one the Beothuk main food supplies they were not amused by the Europeans coming and setting up large fisheries. As a way of expressing this they would often murder fisherman and steel iron from the fisheries. The Beothuk would also prepare elaborate plans to see what kinds of weapons the Europeans had. Where the Beothuk would make decoy animals and elaborate plans to see if the Europeans would pull there guns or just back away. Acts like these were common practise between these two groups.

For many students (such as myself) always believed that in the situation the Beothuk were harmless and that they had no reasons for the Europeans to be any let alone kill and entire culture. This article shows another side to the story were the Aboriginals were cruel and evil to the Europeans. This article is not justifying that what happened was by any means a proper way of conflict resolution, but it does explain some of the events that lead up to such an awful act in Canadian history.