Settlers seized Demasduit to recover stolen property and killed her husband; their remains sat in Edinburgh until 2020

In 1818 Beothuk took property belonging to John Peyton Jr. at the mouth of the Exploits River. Governor Sir Charles Hamilton authorized an expedition to recover it and to make friendly contact. On 5 March 1819, near Red Indian Lake, Peyton's party captured Demasduit. Her husband, Nonosabasut, came at them with a club to free her. One of the party stabbed him with a bayonet, shots were fired, and he died. Their newborn child, left behind, died days later. On 25 May 1819 a St. John's grand jury found "no malice on the part of Peyton's Party." Demasduit, named Mary March by the settlers, died of tuberculosis on 8 January 1820. Captain Buchan's party carried her body back to Red Indian Lake and left it in a wigwam. Her niece Shanawdithit, the last known Beothuk, told William Cormack that her people laid Demasduit beside Nonosabasut. Cormack removed both sets of remains; they went to the University of Edinburgh and later National Museums Scotland. Shanawdithit died in 1829. The museum required a request backed by a descendant community, and no Beothuk community exists. In 2017 five Indigenous leaders of the province signed a declaration supporting return. The museum agreed in January 2019. On 11 March 2020 the remains passed to The Rooms in St. John's, where they stay until a final resting place is decided.