JERRY WETZEL

(Jerry Wetzel is a Shawnee Indian from Ohio. He is married to Edwina John of Conne River. He has done a lot of research on the Mi'kmaqs and Beothucks, or Red Indians, as he prefers to call them.)

There are various stories about where the name Beothuck comes from. It first appears when Cormack comes back from his trip across the island in 1822. If you read Cormack's diary, you'll find that as he went across the island, he was being guided by a Mi'kmaq fellow named Joe Sylvester. Sylvester kept him just about on the line between what the Mi'kmaq considered Beothuck country and what the Beothuck considered Mi'kmaq country.