The last known members of the Indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland were thought to have died out 200 years ago. But genes from these people have been found in a man living in Tennessee today.
Shanawdithit, a Beothuk woman who died of tuberculosis in 1829, was the last known Beothuk. The group had thrived in Newfoundland with as many as 2,000 people there until the Europeans arrived in the early 1500s, bringing disease and pushing the Beothuk inland away from their traditional fishing and hunting grounds, which led to their starvation.
However, even though the Beothuk culture is extinct, their genes are not. Scientists have deiscovered Beothuk genes identical to those of Shanawdithit’s uncle in a Tennessee man. They also found fairly well-matched genetic sequences in members of the modern-day Ojibwe - also known as the Chippewa - people, said researcher Steven Carr.
A drawing of a Beothuk camp in Newfoundland © Alamy
For more of the latest stories, head to livescience.com