Review of River Thieves by Michael Crummey

This book, River Thieves by Michael Crummey, encompasses not only issues of whiteness in its pages but also broader issues of colonization. Set in the early days of Canada, the European settlers are beginning to inhabit and develop Newfoundland, encountering the indigenous group, The Beothuk, on many occassions. One of the main characters, a man by that goes by the name of Buchan, is selected to make a team and go into the wilderness to make peace with the Native people of the land. He attempts using abducting one of their people in order to use her as a translator or mediator, he tries giving gifts and in the end he ultimately tries to win their trust by force. In the end, his attempts at friendly contact go unheeded and all that he causes is bloodshed and death.

Ultimately, the privilege of whiteness that the men feel toward the Indigenous people is shown quite boldly. There are instances in the novel with other characters who openly admit their dislike for the Beothuk people, and even one man who has a "kill count" of them. The European settlers come to Newfoundland and take the land from the Beothuk people, and in their attempts to settle and even befriend them, they destroy them. The Beothuk people were a very much real population of Newfoundland and Crummey is illustrating their extinction at the hands of white men. Through the white men's attempts at colonizing and "civilizing" the people they destroy them, leaving the white men once again the unaffected and more powerful group.

            The European settlers in the novel did not all have the same hatred for the Beothuk people, but many of them did and Crummey illustrates quite well the affect of said hatred. Through their taking of the land, the settlers pushed the Beothuk further and further into the wild, leaving them with less resources and more apt to thieving. The settlers then justified their killings by retrieving what was "rightfully" theirs. Ultimately, the Beothuk and the settlers created a viscious circle of entitlement, with the settlers coming out on top and the Beothuk no more than a part of history. Yet again, the privilege of whiteness has been exercised, with the settlers taking not only the land and the resources of the "savage" Beothuk people but ultimately, their entire existence.