[Mike Blackwood]

On Wed, 24 Apr 2002 fish_oil@space.com wrote:

> Interesting stuff Mike. I remember a thread a while ago
> about Truganini, and her being the last of her kind in
> Tasmania, so in fact, Native folk from some parts of Oz
> didn't fare any better than the Beothuks. What was the
> last woman called - Shannadevit? - I think the

I can't spell it, but sha-na-DIT-thit is phonetically close.

> Brits/Irish/Newf's called her "Nancy", and she died of
> TB, if memory serves. Anyway, I recall thinking there
> was a strong and tragic parallel, and wondering if any
> poets had taken up her story in song or otherwise? I'd
> be very interested in getting hold of any songs you
> might have heard out on the Rock.  :)

Yeah, she was called "Nancy".  Captured at red indian lake in the island's 
interior buy a party of brits sent out to make contact and establish 
relations at any cost.  Her husband was a chief and tried to stop her 
abduction and got killed in the ensuing chaos.  Tragic all around.  She 
was a brilliant individual and picked up english quickly, leaving us the 
only first-hand writings and illustrations of Beothuk life penned by a 
native.  You can see them at the Newfoundland Museum.  

> > (it's especially sad since thier ancestors managed
> > to drive off the vikings in about 1025 AD after 
> > they'd only been here for a quarter century!
> ~snip
> Must have been a tough bunch, eh. Weren't too many
> could drive off the Vikings and live to talk about it.

Well, they were master bowmen, and really outnumbered the Vinlanders 
(local vikings), which made up for teh metal weaponry they were up 
against. The first white north-american was Snorri, a viking girl born 
here in about 1010 AD by the way.

> > out-of-work nature/history interpreter for the local
> > tourism industry?
> 
> Out of work? In Newfoundland?

Har-de-har-har-har....  I'm working (my B.Sc. means I can pump gas!), just 
not in my chosen field of museum work and/or nature/history edutainment 
tourism. 

> Whaddayat!

Nuttin' by'!

> Mike: every heard Buddy Wassisname and the Other Fella?

Yup... they are great musical ambassadors for NF folk music and our 
peculiar sense of humour....

Mike