The Mi'kmaq were also very important to the extermination of the Beothuk. As was the common case across Canada, groups of indigenous people who were in earlier

The Mi'kmaq were also very important to the extermination of the Beothuk. As was the common case across Canada, groups of indigenous people who were in earlier contact with European traders and colonists and who were better able to utilize iron tools and other European technology diligently set about exterminating any hereditary enemies in the vicinity. Read any early ethnographic account from Champlain on and you will find detailed reports of this. The tale of indigenous extermination is not at all simple, and while European diseases certainly played a role, many other factors were also very important. One result of this was that some groups were wiped out almost immediately when Europeans entered the area, while others persisted and even thrived for some centuries after contact. The most devastating effect of disease was likely in the West Coast groups, who left a large number of abandoned villages a few decades after first contact, where contact was very late (in the late 1700's) and colonization played a relatively small role in their destruction (the Interior groups were probably more strongly affected by colonization rather than disease, having had more contact with Eastern groups over the preceding centuries and therefore likely some immunity to disease.)