Canada asks Scotland for remains of two people from extinct N.L. First Nation

Nearly 200 years after the remains of two people belonging to a now-extinct First Nation were taken from a Newfoundland gravesite, the Canadian government has issued a formal repatriation request to the Scottish government.

Heritage Minister Melanie Joly has sent a letter to National Museums Scotland, an arm of the Scottish government, asking for the human remains to be returned to Canada.

The ancient Beothuk people of Newfoundland were declared extinct in 1829, the victims of European disease, loss of hunting grounds and possibly genocide.

The remains of two of the last Beothuk people were discovered by a Newfoundland man in 1828 and sent to Scotland.

The skulls and burial objects of Nonosabasut and his wife Demasduit now form part of a national museum collection in Edinburgh.

A spokeswoman for National Museums Scotland confirmed it had received a formal repatriation request from Canada.

“We have now received a formal request from the Canadian government for the repatriation of the Beothuk material currently held in the national collections,” Susan Gray said in an email. “This will now be considered in line with our Human Remains in Collections Policy.”

Repatriation efforts have been spearheaded by Chief Mi’sel Joe of the Miawpukek First Nation with widespread backing of other Indigenous leaders, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and federal MPs.

However, a previous repatriation request by the province in 2016 was rejected because it did not meet required criteria.

The policy requires federal governments to issue requests with support from “a community descended from those to whom the remains are ancestral.”

Yet given the Beothuk people are extinct, no descendants exist. The last known Beothuk died of tuberculosis in 1829.

In response, Ottawa put the National Museums Scotland on notice last year that the Canadian government would be making a formal demand for repatriation.

Joly indicated that the request to return the remains to Newfoundland is part of Canada’s commitment to reconciliation with its Indigenous People.

She followed through in late November, sending the official request to Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, said Simon Ross, press secretary for the Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

The provincial government and five Indigenous nations sent letters to the minister confirming their support of the repatriation efforts, he said.

If Scottish officials heed Canada’s request, Ross said the Beothuk remains would likely go to The Rooms, a cultural facility and provincial museum in St. John’s.

The Beothuk were an Algonkian-speaking hunter-gatherer nation that lived in extended family groups in Newfoundland, according to a Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage website.

Initial contact with migratory European fishermen may have been peaceful, even providing new opportunities for the Beothuk.

But year-round European settlement in the 17th century spurred drastic change, isolating the Beothuk from vital resources until their extinction in the 19th century.

In 1828, William Eppes Cormack discovered the remains of Nonosabasut and Demasduit, according a National Museums Scotland spokeswoman.

The St. John’s, Nfld., man had been educated in Glasgow and Edinburgh and sent the remains to his mentor, Professor Robert Jameson.

The remains initially formed part of the collection at the University Museum in Edinburgh. In the 1850s, the collection became incorporated into the Royal Scottish Museum, now the National Museum of Scotland.