Tookoolito

Tookoolito (Photo: Thomas Smillie)

Tookoolito (also Taqulittuq , Tackritow , Tackilictoo , Tickalictoo , Tickalucktoo or Tarchuctoo or Hannah Ebierbing ; * approx. 1838 in Nuvuttiq , Nunavut ; † December 31, 1876 in Groton , Connecticut ) was an Eskimo interpreter who took part in three Arctic expeditions . It became well known in the second half of the 19th century and belonged to Ipiirvik with her husbandto the most widely traveled Inuit of their time.

Life

Origin and trip to England

Tookoolito with Hall and Ipiirvik

Tookoolito in 1875

Tookoolito's tombstone

Tookoolito was probably born in 1838 at Cape Searle (Nuvuttiq) on the island of Qaqulluit in the Davis Strait , an Inuit trading post of Baffin Island with European and American whalers . Your Inuktitut name is usually spelled “Tookoolito”, but there are numerous other variants. The correct spelling according to today's rules is not known. Whalers and explorers also called her Hannah. She was the sister of Eenoolooapik (around 1820-1847), who accompanied the Scottish whaler William Penny to Aberdeen in 1839 and took him to the rich fishing grounds in Cumberland Sound the following year .

When the English wine merchant and ship owner John Bowlby, who was planning to build a whaling station, met the 15-year-old Tookoolito on Cumberland Sound in 1853, she was already married to Ipiirvik ( Ebierbing , Joe Ebierbing ), who was two years older . Tookoolito was only 1.50 m tall and is described as "active, lively and full of fun". Bowlby was impressed by the young people and invited them to accompany him to England with a child named Akulukjuk. There he placed her in the family of his ship's doctor, William Gedney, in Hull . The mystery of the disappearance of the Franklin expedition had sparked a keen interest in the Arctic among the English public. At least 20 British expeditions had set out to clarify the fate of Franklin . Bowlby took advantage of this interest by exhibiting the Inuit on various occasions in Hull and London . It was quite common in the mid-19th century to display members of indigenous peoples in public. On February 3, 1854, the three Inuit were received by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Windsor Castle . Tookoolito and Ipiirvik were spared the fate of many Inuit who were brought to Europe voluntarily or forcibly and who died of infectious diseases within a short time. After two years in England, during which Tookoolito in particular had acquired a good knowledge of the English language, they - converted to Christianity - were brought back to their homeland.

Expeditions with Charles Francis Hall

In 1860 came Charles Francis Hall , the editor of a small newspaper in Cincinnati , with Captain Sidney Budington (1823-1888) on his whaling ship George Henry on the Cumberland Sound. Hall had read Elisha Kent Kane's book about the Advance expedition , was passionate about the Arctic, and hoped to solve Franklin's fate. He was amazed to meet an Inuit woman who spoke fluent English, sometimes wore European clothing and displayed European manners. Hall hired her and Ipiirvik as guides and translators. Tookoolito and Ipiirvik were associated with him until his death in 1871. Most of his later successes Hall owed to their friendship. In the Arctic, he relied on the Inuit techniques without attempting to learn them or, for example, driving a team of dogs himself. With the help of the Inuit, whose legends described historical events with astonishing accuracy, he managed to find the place where Martin Frobisher believed to have found gold in the 16th century. Accompanied by Tookoolito, Ipiirvik and their son Tarralikitaq, Hall returned to the United States in 1862 . As in England, the Inuit were put on public display. In Barnum's American Museum they were on display for eight hours a day, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and again in the evening from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Entry cost 25 cents. Her appearance during his lectures helped Hall earn money for his next expedition. The hardships and the unfamiliar climate, but especially their inadequate immunity to numerous infectious diseases rampant outside the Arctic, hit the three Inuit hard. Budington, who opposed her exploitation by Hall, wanted to bring her back north on his next trip out of concern for her health, which led to a dispute with Hall. Tarralikitaq died in New York on February 28, 1863 and was buried in Groton, Connecticut, near the Budington family property.

A year later, Tookoolito and Ipiirvik Hall accompanied the Franklin expedition on his renewed search for traces. It lasted five years and led from northwest Hudson Bay to King William Island . Hall found some skeletons and graves of members of the Franklin expedition and was able to exchange a spoon with Franklin's initials with the Inuit there. With Tookoolito's help, he interviewed the local Inuit and wrote down their reports. Tookoolito had another child, a boy, who soon died. In 1868 she adopted the two-year-old Isigaittuq in Iglulik , who was called “Punna” in Hall's spelling (from “panic”, the Inuktitut word for daughter) and was later known in the USA as Sylvia Grinnell Ebierbing . Upon her return to the United States and Ipiirvik Tookoolito settled in 1869 near Groton down where it for 300 US dollars bought a spacious two-story house. While Ipiirvik was a carpenter, Tookoolito sewed clothes and made souvenirs that she sold on site. But as early as 1871 they took part in Hall's next expedition, which was to lead to the North Pole on the schooner Polaris and which turned out to be tragic. Upon returning from a grueling sled ride, Hall collapsed and believed he had been poisoned. No one except Tookoolito was allowed to approach him. After a few days, Hall died. During a storm in the autumn of 1872, part of the crew was separated from the ship and drifted south on a shrinking ice floe for months. It was only thanks to the experience and ingenuity of the Inuit - in addition to Tookoolito, Ipiirvik and their adoptive daughter, the Greenlander Hans Hendrik and his family on the clod - that none of the 19 people died. But hunger was omnipresent. Eventually they were rescued by the sealer Tigress and deposited in St. John's on Newfoundland , where the Inuit were received as heroes. Like the other members of the expedition, Tookoolito was brought to Washington and questioned about the mysterious circumstances under which Hall had died.

Last years

Back in Groton, Tookoolito and Ipiirvik resumed their previous activities. Her adoptive daughter attended school, but remained marked by the rigors of the ice drift . At the beginning of 1875 she fell ill with pneumonia . She died on March 18, 1875. Tookoolito died at the age of 38 on December 31, 1876 and was buried in Starr Cemetery in Groton. Ipiirvik joined an expedition by Frederick Schwatka in 1878 , found a new wife and did not return to the United States.

importance

Tookoolito spent most of her adult life in the service of Charles Francis Hall. As his teacher and confidante, she helped him survive in the Arctic, communicate with the Inuit and learn more about northern Canada. He owed his success in large part to her and her husband Ipiirvik. The couple were among the most famous Inuit of the 19th century. Her travels took her from Baffin Island to the Melville Peninsula and the mainland northwest of Hudson Bay, as well as northwestern Greenland, England and the northeastern United States.

Honors

Tookoolito and Ipiirvik were declared "Persons of National Historic Interest" by the Canadian government in 1981 for their help in exploring the Arctic. A memorial stone in front of the Iqaluit museum commemorates her. Two geographic objects are named after Tookoolito - Tookoolito Inlet, a bay on the Davis Strait at the southeastern tip of Baffin Island, and the Greenland island of Hannah Ø in the Kennedy Channel .

On the occasion of Tookoolito and Ipiirvik's audience with Queen Victoria, Auguste Dupont (1827–1890) composed the “Tickalicktoo Polka”, which he dedicated to the “Esquimaux Family”.

literature

• Sheila Nickerson: Midnight to the North: The Untold Story of the Inuit Woman who Saved the Polaris Expedition . Tarcher, Putnam 2002, ISBN 1-58542-133-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Judith Charles: The Penny Papers: Imagining Margaret Penny (PDF; 425 kB). Master Thesis, Athabasca University, Athabasca, Alberta 2006, p. 24 (English).
2. ↑ Zebedee Nungak: Rescuing Inuit names from phonetic butcher . Windspeaker.com, 2006 (English)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Kenn Harper: Tookoolito and Ebierbing visit the Queen . In: Nunatsiaq News on July 10, 2020, accessed on March 19, 2021.
4. ^ Richard Cull: A Description of Three Esquimaux from Kinnooksook, Hogarth Sound, Cumberland Strait . In: Journal of the Ethnological Society of London . Volume 4, 1856, pp. 215-225 (English).
5. ^ William James Mills: Exploring Polar Frontiers - A Historical Encyclopedia . tape 1 . ABC-CLIO, 2003, ISBN 1-57607-422-6 , pp. 283 (English, limited preview in Google Book search).
6. ^ Fergus Fleming : Ninety degrees north. Der Traum vom Pol , Piper, 2004, ISBN 3-492-24205-7 , p. 123.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Kenn Harper: The Short Life and Sad Death of Tarralikitaq . In: Nunatsiaq News on February 29, 2008, accessed March 19, 2021.
8. ↑ Kenn Harper: Review of Sheila Nickerson's book Midnight to the North , accessed March 19, 2021.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Kenn Harper: March 18, 1875 - The death of a daughter . In: Nunatsiaq News on March 17, 2006, accessed on March 19, 2021.
10. ↑ Jean Malaurie : Myth of the North Pole. 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany, 2003, ISBN 3-936559-20-1 , p. 150.
11. ↑ John Bennett: Tookoolito . In: The Canadian Encyclopedia , 2020, accessed March 16, 2021.
12. ↑ Kenn Harper: Ebierbing, Hannah (Tookoolito) and Joe . In: Mark Nuttall (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Arctic . tape 1 . Routledge, New York and London 2003, ISBN 1-57958-436-5 , pp. 520-522 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
13. ↑ Ipirvik and Taqulittuq (Ebierbing and Tookoolito) National Historic Person . Designations of National Historic Signifigance, Parks Canada, accessed March 19, 2021.
14. ↑ Kenn Harper: Hannah and Joe on the Map . In: Nunatsiaq News on June 27, 2008, accessed March 19, 2021.
15. ↑ Kenn Harper: A Day in Arctic History The Tickalicktoo Polka . In: Nunatsiaq News on February 2, 2007, accessed March 19, 2021.