Ebierbing

Ebierbing (Inuktitut: Ipiirviq), also known as "Joe," "Eskimo Joe," "Ipirvik", "Eberbing", 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. Together with his wife Tookoolito, he was one of the best-known and most widely travelled Inuit in the 1860s and 1870s.

The nickname "Joe" was given him by the whalers of Cumberland Sound. In 1852, one of these whalers, Thomas Bowlby, Bolby, or Bowling, took Joe and his partner Tookoolito, known as "Hannah," and another young Inuk with him to the English whaling port of Hull. He exhibited them at several venues, always taking care to let the curious know that Joe and Hannah were man and wife, and had been converted to Christianity. Bowlby made arrangements for them to be received by Queen Victoria, and they apparently made a very favorable impression. Unlike many less scrupulous men, Bowlby returned all three Inuit to the Arctic safe and well.

In 1860, Ebierbing and Tookoolito met Charles Francis Hall, and worked closely with him as he sought to trace Inuit oral traditions about the 16th-century expedition of Martin Frobisher. Tookoolito worked principally as Hall's translator, while Ebierbing served as guide and hunter. Having located the original site of Frobisher's attempted settlement, Hall returned to the United States in 1862; Ebierbing, Tookoolito accompanied him, along with their infant son "Butterfly" (Inuktitut: Tukerliktu). Hall had the Inuit family appear with him when he gave his talk on the Frobisher relics at the American Geographical Society, and realizing the high degree of interest in them, arranged with P. T. Barnum for their exhibition at Barnum's American Museum. Hall arranged for their exhibition shortly afterwards at the Boston Aquarial Gardens, but when no payment was forthcoming for this second exhibit, swore off any more dealings with "Show Establishments." Nevertheless, Ebierbing and Tookoolito, along with little Tukerliktu, appeared with Hall during his east coast lecture tour of 1863; the strain of the tour led to health problems for both "Hannah" and her son, and a few weeks later "Butterfly" was dead.

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