Tookoolito
Encyclopedia
Cumberland Sound
Cumberland Sound is an Arctic waterway in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is a western arm of the Labrador Sea located between Baffin Island's Hall Peninsula and the Cumberland Peninsula...
, was an Inuk
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
woman who served as translator and guide to Charles Francis Hall
Charles Francis Hall
Charles Francis Hall was an American Arctic explorer. Little is known of Hall's early life. He was born in the state of Vermont, but while he was still a child his family moved to Rochester, New Hampshire, where, as a boy, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith. In the 1840s he married and drifted...
, an Arctic explorer involved in the search for Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a doomed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer...
in the 1860s and 1870's. Her husband, Joseph Ebierbing
Ebierbing
Ebierbing , also known as "Joe," "Eskimo Joe," and "Joseph Ebierbing", c. 1837 - c. 1881, was a remarkable Inuit guide and explorer, who assisted several American Arctic explorers, among them Charles Francis Hall and Frederick Schwatka...
: , known as "Joe," worked alongside her as a guide and hunter, and they both accompanied Hall on the United States Polaris Expedition
Polaris expedition
The Polaris expedition was led by the American Charles Francis Hall, who intended it to be the first expedition to reach the North Pole. Sponsored by the United States government, it was one of the first serious attempts at the Pole, after that of British naval officer William Edward Parry, who in...
.
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
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 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
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
at Windsor Castle. 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. Later that year, Hall arranged for them to be exhibited at Barnum's American Museum
Barnum's American Museum
Barnum's American Museum was located at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street in New York City, USA, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was owned by famous showman P.T. Barnum and his partner and original owner, John Scudder. Prior to their partnership, the museum was known as Scudder's American...
in New York, where they drew enormous crowds, advertised as "Esquimaux Indians
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
... from the arctic regions ... the first and only inhabitants of these frozen regions ever brought to" the United States. Not long after, Hall agreed to a second exhibition at Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's Aquarial Gardens, but when no payment was forthcoming, decided that such shows were not worth the risk to Hannah and Joe's health. 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. 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
Inuktitut
Inuktitut or Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, Eastern Canadian Inuit language is the name of some of the Inuit languages spoken in Canada...
word for "daughter").
Polaris expedition
The Polaris expedition was led by the American Charles Francis Hall, who intended it to be the first expedition to reach the North Pole. Sponsored by the United States government, it was one of the first serious attempts at the Pole, after that of British naval officer William Edward Parry, who in...
(1871–1873. Along with their daughter Panik and the Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
ic Inuit hunter Hans Hendrik
Hans Hendrik
Hans Hendrik, also known as Hans Christian, native name Suersaq , was a Greenlandic Arctic traveller and interpreter, born in the southern settlement of Fiskernaes .-Supporting the Kane Expedition:...
, 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 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. They returned to Groton, Connecticut
Groton, Connecticut
Groton is a town located on the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 39,907 at the 2000 census....
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 63°5′N 64°45′W on the western side of Cornelius Grinnell Bay in Nunavut
Nunavut
Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...
is named after her.
External links
- Biography of Tookoolito at the Canadian Encyclopedia
- Kenn Harper, "Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History — Nov. 2 1860: A Fortuitous Meeting", Nunatsiaq News archive
- Parks CanadaParks CanadaParks Canada , also known as the Parks Canada Agency , is an agency of the Government of Canada mandated to protect and present nationally significant natural and cultural heritage, and foster public understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment in ways that ensure their ecological and commemorative...
's list of Persons of National Historic Significance - Review of Midnight to the North by Kenn HarperKenn HarperKenn Harper is a Canadian grocer in Iqaluit, Nunavut. He writes a regular column in Nunatsiaq News. He was employed at various times as a teacher and development officer and is an entrepreneur. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society...
at the Arctic Book Review - Handbill and description of public exhibitions of "Hannah" and "Joe," at the "Esquimaux" on Display page (Rhode Island College)