Ebierbing (Eskimo Joe)

Inuit Arctic guide

• Born: c. 1837
• Birthplace: Qimmiqsut, Canada
• Died: c. 1881
• Place of death: Arctic

Also known as: Eskimo Joe; Joe Ebierbing; Ipiirvik

Significance: Ebierbing was an Inuit hunter and guide who became anglicized and was famous on two continents during the nineteenth century. He was part of an ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole and helped the rest of the crew survive for months when they were stranded on an ice floe.

Background

Ebierbing was born around 1837 in the town of Qimmiqsut along the Cumberland Sound in Canada. Ebierbing was a native Inuit, one of the indigenous peoples of Canada. His given name was Ipiirvik, which the English-speaking Canadian and American whalers he encountered inexplicably anglicized to Ebierbing. He was also given the nickname Joe, and Ebierbing became his last name.

At the time, people in Europe and America had a great interest in the lives and cultures of native people from across North America. Explorers and businessmen from Western cultures would often arrange to bring natives to England, the United States, and other countries where they would be guests at high-society parties and exhibited at sideshows for the average person to see. Ebierbing and his wife, Tookoolito, agreed to go to England with British merchant John Bowlby in 1853 after he met them while in Cumberland Sound on a cod fishing expedition. Ebierbing and Tookoolito—who was also known as Hannah—learned passable English, converted to Christianity, and met the British monarch Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert while in England. London's high society was intrigued by the Inuit couple, and they remained in England for two years. When they returned to Canada, Ebierbing went back to hunting for a number of years.

Life's Work

Ebierbing might have remained a hunter for the rest of his life except for an encounter his wife had with inexperienced Arctic explorer Charles Francis Hall in 1860. Hall, an American newspaperman and printer, was obsessed with discovering what had happened to Sir John Franklin, a British naval officer and arctic explorer who disappeared with his entire well-equipped expedition in 1845. Ebierbing and his wife assisted Hall in his search. It was the beginning of a relationship that lasted until Hall's death. Although Hall met and worked with many other native Inuit, he had a suspicious nature and never trusted any others as he trusted Ebierbing and Hannah. When Hall returned to the United States, he took the Inuit couple and their baby boy, Tukerliketa, with him.

While Ebierbing and his young family were in America, they often stayed with Sidney Budington, who captained a whaling ship, and his wife in their home in Groton, Connecticut. However, Ebierbing and his family traveled frequently to be willing participants during Hall's lectures about his travels and as part of exhibits in a New York museum owned by showman P.T. Barnum. Museum visitors paid twenty-five cents—the equivalent of about $7 in the early twenty-first century—to see the Inuit family and other attractions. Hall's travel schedule was intense, and the rigors of traveling coupled with the change in environment proved too much for Ebierbing's young son. He died in 1863.

Hall used the money he obtained from exhibiting Ebierbing and his family to fund another Arctic expedition to continue his search for Franklin. By now, he had reason to believe that Franklin and his crew might have been at King William Island in northern Canada. Hall, Ebierbing, and Hannah set off in 1864 to resume looking for signs of Franklin. While on this journey, Hannah gave birth to a second child, who died shortly after birth. The couple adopted a third child, a girl named Isigaittuq, while among the native people in Canada. She would become known as Punna, after the Inuit word panik, or daughter, and was also known as Sylvia Grinnell Ebierbing.

The second expedition, a five-year trek through remote regions in an attempt to find Franklin, ended without success. Hall, Ebierbing, and his family returned to Groton. Ebierbing bought a house for $300 in 1869, and he hoped to settle down. He took up carpentry, and Hannah became a seamstress. Their quiet home life did not last for long, however. In 1871, Hall set off on a new quest to find the North Pole. This venture, funded by the US government, was better equipped than most of Hall's travels, when he often left with little and lived among the native people, eating and surviving as they did.

For the North Pole trek, Ebierbing's former host, Sidney Budington, served as captain of the Polaris, a former naval vessel re-equipped for Arctic travel. The voyage took a tragic turn when Hall fell ill and died. (More than a century after his death, Hall's body was exhumed and it was determined he died from arsenic poisoning that may have been murder or simply the result of a "remedy" he took for his illness.)

The efforts to reach the North Pole continued after Hall's death. In the fall of 1872, the ship was stuck in an ice floe when a severe storm hit. With the ship threatening to capsize, the entire crew—including Ebierbing, his wife, and daughter—abandoned the Polaris. They were forced to live on the shrinking ice floe for 190 days, surviving largely by virtue of Ebierbing's hunting and wilderness survival expertise. The entire crew was still alive when they were finally found by a seal-hunting vessel on April 30, 1873.

Ebierbing was part of an unsuccessful mission to retrieve the Polaris, and he and Hannah were called to testify about what happened to the expedition before returning to Groton to live for a while. Their family life was disrupted by the death of their nine-year-old daughter in early 1875. After his daughter's death, Ebierbing went north with a British expedition seeking the Northwest Passage. By the time he returned to Connecticut, Hannah had died.

With no reason to stay in America, Ebierbing went north again in 1880 with Frederick Schwatka. Schwatka was seeking information about Franklin's missing expedition. Ebierbing remained in the Arctic until his death, around 1881.

Impact

Ebierbing was instrumental in helping Hall gather information about the Arctic regions they explored. The information they obtained was used to help other explorers in further expeditions to the area.

Personal Life

Ebierbing and his wife, Hannah, traveled across the Arctic as guides of the region. The couple lived in the United States for a time, and often returned to Canada on expeditions with explorers. The couple had three children, but none survived to adulthood.

Bibliography

"Ebierbing (ca. 1837–ca. 1881)." University of Calgary, pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic39-2-186.pdf. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.

Hall, Charles Francis. Life with the Esquimaux. Cambridge UP, 2011.

Nutall, Mark, editor. Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Routledge, 2004.

Potter, Russell. "Charles Francis Hall." Arctic Visions, 13 July 2013, whalingmuseum-arcticvisions.org/charles-francis-hall/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.

Potter, Russell A. "The Arctic Shows of Charles Francis Hall, 1862–1863." Rhode Island College, www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/hall.html. Accessed 22 Feb. 2017.