Tookoolito

Tookoolito ( _iu. Taqulittuq) (c. 1838 – December 31, 1876) known as "Hannah" among whalers of Cumberland Sound, was an Inuk woman who served as translator and guide to Charles Francis Hall, an Arctic explorer involved in the search for Franklin's lost expedition in the 1860s and 1870's. Her husband, Joseph Ebierbing ( _iu. Ipiirviq): , known as "Joe," worked alongside her as a guide and hunter, and they both accompanied Hall on the United States Polaris Expedition. [Loomis, "Weird and Tragic Shores", p. 258]

Tookoolito first encountered Europeans through whaling activity in the Cumberland Sound area; in 1853, a whaling captain named Thomas Bowlby brought her with Ebierbing and an unrelated child ("Harlookjoe") to England. The three Inuit were exhibited in various venues throughout the north of the country, and were eventually brought to London, where they were received by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle [Loomis, "Weird and Tragic Shores", p. 86] . Unlike many less scrupulous showmen, Bowlby returned the group to the Arctic where, some seven years later, the explorer Charles Francis Hall met "Hannah" and "Joe" (as Ebierbing was known) and enlisted their aid as translator and guide.

She and Joe returned with Hall in the fall of 1862, and appeared alongside him at his lectures. [Potter, "Arctic Spectacles", p. 168] Later that year, Hall arranged for them to be exhibited at Barnum's American Museum in New York, where they drew enormous crowds, advertised as "Esquimaux Indians ... from the arctic regions ... the first and only inhabitants of these frozen regions ever brought to" the United States. [Display advertisement, "New York Times", November 15, 1862, available online [http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/hall.html here] ] Not long after, Hall agreed to a second exhibition at Boston's Aquarial Gardens, but when no payment was forthcoming, decided that such shows were not worth the risk to Hannah and Joe's health. [Potter, "Arctic Spectacles", p. 173] Nevertheless, they accompanied him on his East Coast lecture tour throughout the early months of 1863, and quite probably as a result, Tookoolito's young son "Butterfly" became ill and died. Inconsolable, Tookoolito became suicidal, but eventually regained her health, returning, along with Ebierbing, with Hall to the Arctic on his second land expedition from 1864 to 1869. [Loomis, "Weird and Tragic Shores", pp. 159–160] During this expedition, Tookoolito gave birth to a son "King William," who died in infancy; she and Joe then adopted a two-year old Inuit girl whom they called simply "Panik" (the Inuktitut word for "daughter").

She and Joe also accompanied Hall on his final voyage, the voyage of the Polaris (1871–1873. Along with their daughter Panik and the Greenlandic Inuit hunter Hans Hendrik, they were among the party left behind after Hall's death, when the ship abruptly broke loose of the ice and failed to return. This party endured a remarkable six-month drift on a gradually-shrinking icefloe, kept alive only by Joe and Hans's hunting skills; the entire party was rescued by a sealer in April of 1873. During the investigation into Hall's death, both Tookoolito and Ebierbing testified, both corroborating Hall's belief that he had been poisoned, but their evidence was discounted. [Petrone, "Northern Voices", pp. 66–72] They returned to Groton, Connecticut to a home that whaling captain Sidney O. Budington had helped them establish. Joe returned to the Arctic several times to work as a guide, while Tookoolito remained behind, caring for Panik and working as a seamstress. After Panik, whose health had been poor since her experience on the icefloe, died at the age of nine, Hannah fell into declining health. Joe was with her when she died on December 31, 1876; she was buried in the Starr Burying Ground not far from the Budington family plot.

Tookoolito Inlet, located at coord|63|5|N|64|45|W on the western side of Cornelius Grinnell Bay in Nunavut is named after her.

Notes

Bibliography

* Foster, Merna. (2004) "100 Canadian Heroines". Dundern Press, ISBN 1550025147
* Harper, Kenn. (1989) "History on a Headstone: A Long-forgotten chapter of Inuit Heroism". "Above and Beyond" 1(2):53–62.
* Jones, HG. (Jan 2002) "Teaching the Explorers: Some Inuit Contributions to Arctic Discoveries". "Polar Geography" 26(1): 4–20.
* Loomis, Chauncey. (1971) "Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer" NY: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0394451317
* Nickerson, Sheila. (2002) "Midnight to the North: The Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition". Tarcher Books, ISBN 1585421332
* Petrone, Penny. (1988) "Northern Voices: Inuit Writing in English". Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ISBN 080207717X
* Potter, Russell. (2007) "Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818–1875". Seattle: University of Washington Press, ISBN 0295986808

External links

* Biography of Tookoolito at the [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008042 "Canadian Encyclopedia"]
* Kenn Harper, "Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History — Nov. 2 1860: A Fortuitous Meeting", [http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/51028/opinionEditorial/columns.html "Nunatsiaq News" archive]
* Parks Canada's list of [http://www.pc.gc.ca/culture/dacosta/page1_e.asp Persons of National Historic Significance]
* Review of "Midnight to the North" by Kenn Harper at the [http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/midnight.html Arctic Book Review]
* Handbill and description of public exhibitions of "Hannah" and "Joe," at the [http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/eskimoes.html "Esquimaux" on Display page] (Rhode Island College)