![Tookoolito Nourse (profile)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Tookoolito_Nourse_%28profile%29.jpg)
Taqulittuq ( iu, ᑕᖁᓕᑦᑐᖅ, i=no, often transliterated as Tookoolito; – December 31, 1876) was an
Inuk
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...
interpreter and guide. She and her husband
Ipirvik
Ipirvik ( iu, ᐃᐱᕐᕕᒃ, i=no, often transliterated as Ebierbing; –) was an Inuk guide and explorer who assisted several Arctic explorers, among them Charles Francis Hall and Frederick Schwatka. He and his wife Taqulittuq were the best-kno ...
(also known as Joe) worked alongside Arctic explorer
Charles Francis Hall
Charles Francis Hall ( – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading t ...
and joined him in his search for
Franklin's lost expedition
Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest ...
in the 1860s, as well as the
''Polaris'' expedition to reach the
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...
Biography
Early life and family
Taqulittuq was born at
Cape Searle in the Cumberland Sound or
Qikiqtaaluk Region
The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ) or Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name f ...
, or
Baffin Island
Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...
area. Her brother,
Eenoolooapik, traveled in 1839 with whaler
William Penny
Captain William Penny (1809–1892) was a Scottish shipmaster, whaler and Arctic explorer. He undertook the first maritime search for the ships of Sir John Franklin. In 1840, Penny established the first whaling station in the Cumberland Sound a ...
to Aberdeen. Other relatives, Totocatapik and Kur-king, were also renowned as travelers. In 1852, Taqulittuq began learning English from a British whaler, William Barron.
Travels
![Tookoolito western clothing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Tookoolito_western_clothing.png)
In 1853, a whaling captain named John Bowlby (sometimes called Thomas Bowlby) brought her with Ipirvik and an unrelated child, Akulukjuk ("Harlookjoe"), to England. The three Inuit were exhibited in various venues throughout the north of the country. They were eventually brought to London, where they were received by Queen
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
at
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original cast ...
. She and Ipirvik dined with the Queen and
Prince Albert. Unlike many less scrupulous showmen, Bowlby returned the group to the Arctic.
In 1860, the explorer
Charles Francis Hall
Charles Francis Hall ( – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading t ...
met Taqulittuq and Ipirvik, hiring them as a translator and guide on his first expedition to search for remains of the Franklin expedition. Local inhabitants led him to the remains of the Frobisher expedition instead. Sidney Budington captained the expedition's ship, the ''George Henry''.
She and Ipirvik 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 was located at the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street in what is now the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, from 1841 to 1865. The museum was owned by famous showman P. T. Barnum, who purchas ...
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. Not long after, Hall agreed to a second exhibition at
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
's Aquarial Gardens, but when no payment was forthcoming, decided that such shows were not worth the risk to Hannah and Ipirvik’s health. Nevertheless, they accompanied him on his East Coast lecture tour throughout the early months of 1863, and possibly, as a result, Taqulittuq's young son Butterfly became ill and died of pneumonia. Inconsolable, Taqulittuq became suicidal, but eventually regained her health.
Along with Ipirvik, she returned with Hall to the Arctic on his second land expedition from 1864 to 1869. During this expedition, Taqulittuq gave birth to a son "King William," who died in infancy; she and Ipirvik then adopted a two-year-old Inuit girl whom they called simply Panik (Inuktitut: "daughter").
Taqulittuq and Ipirvik also accompanied Hall on his
final expedition aboard the . Along with their daughter Panik and
Hans Hendrik
Hans Hendrik ( kl, Suersaq, i=no; 2 June 1832 – 11 August 1889) was a Kalaallit interpreter, Arctic explorer, and the first Inuk to publish an account of his travels. He was born in the southern settlement of Fiskenæsset.
Expeditions ...
, 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 ice-floe, kept alive only by Ipirvik and Hans's hunting skills; the entire party was rescued by a sealer in April 1873.
![Tookoo grave](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Tookoo_grave.jpg)
During the investigation into Hall's death, both Taqulittuq and Ipirvik testified, both corroborating Hall's belief that he had been poisoned, but their evidence was discounted.
Later life
They returned to
Groton, Connecticut
Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is ...
, to a home that whaling captain that Hall and Sidney O. Budington had helped establish. Ipirvik returned to the Arctic several times to work as a guide, while Taqulittuq remained behind, caring for Panik and working as a seamstress.
After Panik—whose health had been poor since her experience on the ice floe—died at the age of nine, Hannah fell into declining health. Ipirvik 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.
Legacy
Tookoolito Inlet, located on the western side of Cornelius Grinnell Bay in
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
, and Hannah Island, in the mouth of Bessels Fjord, North Greenland, is named after her. Taqulittuq and her husband were named
Persons of National Historic Significance
Persons of National Historic Significance (National Historic People) are people designated by the Canadian government as being nationally significant in the history of the country. Designations are made by the Minister of the Environment on the re ...
in 1981.
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
* Biography of Taqulittuq at th
''Canadian Encyclopedia''by John Bennett
* Kenn Harper, "Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History — Nov. 2 1860: A Fortuitous Meeting"
* Listing in
Parks Canada
Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...
'
Persons of National Historic Significance* Review of ''Midnight to the North'' by
Kenn Harper
Kenn Harper (aka ''Ilisaijikutaaq'', tall teacher) is a Canadian writer, historian and former businessman. He is the author of ''Give Me My Father's Body'', an account of Greenland Inuk Minik Wallace, had a regular column on Arctic history in ''Nun ...
at th
Arctic Book Review* Handbill and description of public exhibitions of "Hannah" and "Joe," at th
(Rhode Island College)
{{Authority control
1830s births
1876 deaths
19th-century indigenous people of the Americas
Castaways
Female polar explorers
Inuit from the Northwest Territories
Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)
Polaris expedition
People from Qikiqtaaluk Region
Interpreters
19th-century translators