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The Story of Crow Gulch

Memories of The Beothuck Indians

("Stories My Father Told Me")

By Audrey Manning(courtesy of The Kittiwake Commentary-May 1995)

When John Cabot discovered Newfoundland in 1497, the Beothucks were the principal inhabitants. They lived mainly in the Notre Dame Bay area. For three hundred years after the settlers came, contact between the two peoples was violent and uncooperative.

Tuberculosis and other diseases brought by the Europeans, lack of understanding of each other's cultures and superiority of numbers of settlers after three hundred years, caused the last Beothuck to succumb at the hands of the settlers, in 1819.

Despite the fact that the Beothucks have disappeared from our earthly reality, they are still around us in the spiritual realm. There is much evidence that the Beothucks frequented the Cape Freels area, and open-minded people can still feel their presence when walking or working on the Cape beach, as artists and photographers are wont to do during the summer months.

Along the Kittiwake Coast, there are many stories of the Beothucks and their culture. These stories are all but lost to our generation because after the last Beothuck died, most sympathetic Newfoundlanders were reluctant to talk about them because of the shame their genocide brought to our ancestors.

But, we are beginning to understand that in facing up to the atrocities as well as the good things of our culture, we are poised to move forward into an exciting future in tourism, where our past will be the key to our future.

One of the stories that has great appeal for me is the story of Crow Gulch. According to the Beothucks, when the world began on the Queen's Head in Lumsden North, there were two kinds of people in this world - good and immoral. These people inhabited the two beaches - Lumsden and Cape Freels.

The legend says the people were always bickering and fighting about which beach was the better. The bickering became so disruptive and the people were spending so much time away from their chores that their children were going hungry. However, on both beaches, there were people who kept insisting that one or the other beach belonged to the Great White Spirit.

The Crow kept saying to the people on both beaches, "Follow me to the other beach!" and the Kittiwake (Gull) said, "Don't be swayed by false promises, every beach is the same." The Great White Spirit looked down upon the people he had created and said to himself, "Will they ever learn to stop fighting to be the brightest and the best?"

Then, he sadly watched as on each beach some people gathered to follow the Crow to the other beach. The others were no better! They decided to stand with the Kittiwake on their own beach to prevent the new Crow followers from gaining entry. The Great White Spirit said, "Why do they follow leaders? Why don't they make up their own minds and then they will see that all beaches are the same?" But, Crow people from each beach picked up their belongings and started to move to the other beach. As they were about to come upon each other somewhere between Lumsden and Cape Freels, the Great White Spirit opened up a large chasm between the two beaches. On each side, the Crow's followers could not get across the great divide without falling to their death on the rocks below.

The people said to the Crow, "What are we to do?" The Crow said, "I have been a foolish crow. There is no difference between the two beaches. Go back and live on your own beach in peace! Also, let anyone from outside your beach live with you in peace, should anyone so wish!"

So both the Kittiwake people and the Crow people remained on their own beaches and strived to love together in peace and to look after their children well.

The Great White Spirit restored the great divide but left a small portion unrestored to remind the people of the lessons they had learned: It is not wise to blindly follow others to a promised beach! There is no difference in the two beaches! Anyone who wishes should be allowed to live on either beach! Those who follow others do so at their own peril! There is no shame in admitting you have been wrong!

The unrestored portion of the Great Divide thereafter was called the Crow Gulch. The Crow Gulch serves as a reminder of the time when the world began and the lessons the first peoples were taught by the Great White Spirit.

So, if you encounter wispy spirits on the beaches, when the wind is blowing softly on a warm Summer's day, they are a friendly reminder of a time when the world began. If you open your heart and mind to their lessons, they will teach you what they taught the Beothucks so long ago. Those of us who inhabit the earth are all equal!

[THE "CROW GULCH" CAN BE SEEN AT THE TOP OF "THE HEAD"(AS THE LUMSDEN FOLK WOULD CALL IT...), LOCATED AT THE SOUTH SIDE OF LUMSDEN.]