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Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History

January 28, 2005

February 3, 1854: Hannah and Joe visit the Queen

KENN HARPER

Ipiirvik, Tookoolito and Akulukjuk made the perfect Esquimaux family for the Illustrated London News.

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In 1853, John Bowlby, a British wine merchant who wished to establish a Christian mission to the Inuit, arrived in Cumberland Sound on his small ship, the Bee. There he met two remarkable young Inuit, both teenagers. Tookoolito was a girl of about 15. There are various spellings of her Inuit name and the correct version is unknown. Whalers and explorers usually called her Hannah. Ipiirvik was two years older. Whalers wrote his name as Ebierbing, but usually called him Joe.

Bowlby was impressed with these two young people, and invited them to visit England with him. A young boy from another family, Akulukjuk, went with them. They lived in Hull with William Gedney, the ship’s surgeon, and his family.

There was much interest in England at the time in things to do with the Arctic. Much public attention was given to the search for the missing expedition of Sir John Franklin, which had disappeared in search of the elusive North-west Passage. By 1853, at least 20 British expeditions had gone in search of Franklin, and the British public seemed to have an insatiable appetite for news of the search and speculation as to its fate.

Ethnographical exhibitions were very popular in England at this time. And so it was inevitable that Hannah, Joe and Akulukjuk would be put on display in various places in their native costumes.

In early October, 1853, newspapers reported that John Bowlby planned to introduce the Inuit to the Queen, but it was almost four months before the event actually happened. Friday, February 3, 1854, was a day like any other for Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. In the morning the Queen rode horseback, while the prince went hunting. Later in the morning, Mr. Robert Bowser, treasurer of the Hull Zoological Gardens, presented the Inuit, who were apparently under his management for a series of exhibitions. Bowser was accompanied by John Bowlby, Mr. Leicester Buckingham (a lecturer who accompanied the exhibition), and Mr. Gedney who acted as interpreter.

The Inuit and their entourage arrived at Windsor Castle a full two hours before their presentation. The Inuit were dressed in their native sealskin costumes. The staff showed the Inuit group and their hangers-on through the castle, including the state and private apartments, and hosted them at a luncheon. Finally, they were presented to the Queen, Prince Albert, and their daughters, the Duchess of Kent and the Duchess of Sutherland, among others.

Bowser presented the Queen a pair of slippers that Hannah had made. Prince Albert and the Duchess of Kent asked Mr. Gedney several questions about the natives and their country, and, a report notes, “the whole party appeared to be much interested in the information which those queries elicited.” The presentation lasted 20 minutes.

The Queen and Prince Albert were preparing to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary the following Friday, and much was made of the fact that Hannah and Joe were married. One source says they had been married for “above two years,” which would mean they had been married according to Inuit custom before they left Cumberland Sound. Another source says they were married in England.

Queen Victoria thought that this group of three Inuit were the first of their race ever to visit England, although there had been other Inuit there, some willing, some kidnapped, since the days of Martin Frobisher. She recorded in her journal:

“Had seen before luncheon 3 Esquimaux, a married couple, & a little boy, natives of Keimenksoka & Newganemyatt, on the West coast of the Cumberland Straits, Davis Straits. They are the 1st to have ever come over. They belong to a very poor tribe of about 500 or 1000 & have been brought over, in the hopes of raising funds to assist them. They are my subjects, very curious, & quite different to any of the southern or African tribes, having very flat round faces, with a Mongolian shape of eyes, a fair skin, & jet black hair. They are entirely clothed in skins. The boy is a pretty little, red-cheeked, black-haired thing, 7 years of age, the man 18, and the woman 16.” [Journal of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, 3 February 1854, Royal Archives, Windsor Castle.]

Robert Bowser received 25 pounds for his effort in presenting the Eskimo family, a not inconsiderable sum in those days. Three weeks after the presentation, Col Phipps wrote to Robert Bowser, asking if “photographic likenesses” had been taken of the Eskimos. Bowser replied that no photograph was yet available, and there is no indication that any were subsequently sent. He sent instead six copies of a specially composed piece of music, the “Tickalicktoo Polka,” with lithographic likenesses of the Eskimos. Unfortunately, no copy of any of this has survived in either the Royal Archives or the Royal Library.

Hannah, Joe and Akulukjuk all returned to Cumberland Sound in 1855. Hannah and Joe went on to work as guides and interpreters with American explorers and became the most well-travelled Inuit of the 19th century.

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest, whose anniversary is in the coming week. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit.

January 21, 2005

January 23, 1895: A sealskin church eaten by dogs

KENN HARPER

In June of 1894 the Reverend Edmund James Peck left his wife and family behind in England, and travelled to Peterhead, Scotland, where he and an assistant, Joseph Parker, signed on as members of the eight-man crew of the Alert, a small whaling ship of 129 tons. Peck signed on as chaplain, Parker as doctor. A few weeks later, the tiny vessel left Peterhead for the isolated whaling station of Blacklead Island, across Cumberland Sound from the present community of Pangnirtung.

Peck had already been a missionary to the Inuit of northern Quebec, from 1876 until 1892. On this trip, he was about to achieve his long-held goal of establishing an even more northerly mission, to the Inuit of Baffin Island.

Peck’s first impression of Blacklead Island was not favourable:

“In very truth this island is a gloomy-looking spot, almost absolutely nothing to be seen but rocks, and the bones of whales which strew the place everywhere. Sometimes in a particularly sheltered spot, one may come across a tuft of coarse stunted grass.”

The settlement at Blacklead occupied only the relatively flat eastern portion of the island, and Peck thought it to be an untidy mess. The decaying remains of whales were everywhere and at times the smell from the carcasses was most unpleasant. Hoops and barrels littered the shoreline. And everywhere was the excrement of the sled dogs whose mournful howls was for Peck a plaintive nightly chorus.

The missionaries’ accommodations were in a building provided by the whalers. Their quarters were anything but luxurious. The building was a two-room shack, each room only 10 feet square. In these small quarters, not only did they have to live, but to store a two-year supply of food-stuffs and perishables.

Their domestic outfit included: one ton of flour, 800 pounds of sugar, 180 pounds of tea, 800 pounds of preserved meats, dried and preserved vegetables, 600 pounds of oatmeal, one ton of biscuits, 100 pounds of jam, one barrel of paraffin oil, methylated spirits, articles of trade, including knives, pipes, tobacco and scissors, and 200 pounds of soap. They also brought with them 15 tons of coal and one ton of wood.

Near the whaling station, Inuit had built a camp comprised of skin tents and wooden shacks, made from whatever material was at hand. Peck took a census and found that there were 171 natives living there. He knew that there was also a sizable population at Kekerten on the north side of the sound, as well as many small camps throughout the sound. And he realized just how much the Inuit had come to rely on the whalers for employment as well as guns and ammunition.

Although the whalers had provided Peck’s accommodation, there was not a building to spare to use as a church, and Peck felt an urgent need for a place where the missionaries could meet for worship with the Inuit. And so, the first church on Blacklead Island was constructed of sealskin. It had a wooden frame, 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, covered with skins. Peck held his first service there on Oct. 7, 1894.

The sealskin church served its purpose for a few months until shortly after the new year. Then a period of poor hunting and extreme hunger affected all the inhabitants of Blacklead, both men and dogs. At 3 a.m. on January 23, Peck and Parker were awakened by the sound of a pack of starving dogs. They were on top of the church and were tearing it to pieces. Peck estimated there were over 100 of the ravenous animals. Many had fallen through the roof into the church. They destroyed a good portion of it.

Parker wrote in his diary: “The poor, starving dogs greatly disturbed us one cold night... by breaking into our — may I call it church? — tearing the little place down and devouring it. We were quickly on the scene of destruction, but too late to be able to save much of the materials which had formed the roof, for being skin, the dogs had eaten it up quickly. It was a sorry little edifice — still, our best. Next day we set to and repaired it somehow with all kinds of odds and ends, so that it was in use again the following day. It has undergone repairs and improvements this summer, but still remains a despicable little object, though I am glad to say the people think it grand.”

Peck spent four periods of two years each at Blacklead Island. On each of his one-year furloughs in England, his routine was much the same — oversee the publication of church literature in syllabics, lecture on the importance of his mission to the Inuit, and lobby the Church Missionary Society for the mission’s continuance.

On one of his fund-raising visits to Scotland, when he was telling the story of the sealskin church to a Sunday School class, a young girl remarked, “Now that we have heard of a kirk being eaten by dogs, it is not hard to believe that a whale could have swallowed Jonah.”

The Blacklead Island mission closed in 1906.

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest, whose anniversary is in the coming week. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit.

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