Midnight to the North: The Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition

by Sheila Nickerson

A gripping true account of Tookoolito, a thirty-four-year old Inuit woman and translator whose extraordinary survival skills saved all nineteen members of the ill-fated Polaris expedition in 1871, vibrantly recreates the life of this woman referred to as the "Sacagawea of the Ice." 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Native American

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Kera Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sheila Nickerson is not a bad writer, the problem with this book is there is only 5 pages of information about Hannah "the Inuit women who saved the Polaris Expedition". the book is mostly full of varies information about the Inuit's way of life, and the attempts to conquer the icy land. Sheila often got off track explaining the struggles she had with her sick mother in New York, which was really more interesting then her attempts to discover information about what really happened with the Polaris expedition. Sheila would often daydream what she imagined Hannah was feeling but with only one of the stranded crew members keeping a journal, which rarely mentioned Hannah, Sheila had no real evidence. Often Sheila would describe Hannah as an unknown hero, but spoiler alert none of the crew ever said or gave any hints that Hannah did anything more then the other Inuit wife.

If Sheila was to write a fictional book, I would read it, but her exploration of a woman no one spoke about or seemed to know was just a waste of time. What I learned in this book was that seals blood is thought to be energy by the Inuits, the Inuits would make death igloos for their old members,the Inuit men on the Polaris expedition fed the other member saving them from starvation,the polar bear's liver is full of vitamin A and poisonous to eat. What I did not learn was how a Inuit woman saved the Polaris expedition.

[Piper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Making me thirsty for a cup of seal blood! The author’s off topic memoir moments coulda been axed but the story at its core is so fascinating! Tookoolito is who ya want by your side when you’re floating on an iceberg for 6 months eating your shirts.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had so much potential but it took a horrible turn about 100 pages in.
The author suddenly turns this non-fiction account of 1800's arctic exploration into a personal account of her life and her mother's decline along with. She starts to describe the weather based on astrology, and mentions that her mother's death must not be far off, because of the alignment of the stars. She reports on documents she finds that are illegible and says what she "wishes" them to say as if these words actually were recorded and true. What a waste.

Most notably, the book is titled about the "Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition." Even in the author's own account, there seems to be nothing extraordinary that the woman does to save the group. The group is picked up by a ship that would have passed by regardless of her presence. The hunting, cooking, and organization of the stranded group is accounted to not be substantially influenced by the woman. The entire premise of the book is not supported.

[Mary Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author thoroughly researched and retold the story of a fascinating expedition. But it was a peculiar marriage of documentation and embroiderous speculation towards what the author wished had happened. The occasional peculiar sentence indicated the need for more editing. There was not much evidence that the Inuit woman saved the Polaris!

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoy true adventure/survival stories, and this one is pretty incredible. After the captain of a polar expedition is mysteriously poisoned, his ship wrecks and 19 people are stranded on an ice floe in the arctic for 6 1/2 months, among them two Inuit families whose resourcefulness and local knowledge keep the group alive.

The first three chapters are really dense with place names and people that for me at least, tended to blur together. I would recommend starting the book on chapter 4.

While the author's writing is sometimes very beautiful and poetic, she tries too hard to get inside the head of Tookoolito, and make a hero of her. There were undoubtedly many heroes in this story, one of the most obvious being Tookoolito's husband, Ebierbing, without whose hunting skills they all would have died. In an effort to "feminize" the story and bring out Tookoolito as the real hero, his efforts and their marital relationship are downplayed. Also irritating is the author's juxtaposition of episodes from her own life toward the end of the book. While that may work in a more contemplative type of a narrative, it did not work for me here.

Interesting story, distracting storytelling.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Artic tale of survival and subsistence living of the Inuit. An expedition in the 1880's trying to reach the North Pole became ice bound, then when the ship sank and the ice parted, half of the crew were adrift on an ice flow with an Inuit woman and her husband and 1 other Inuit hunter. They kept the crew alive as they drifted out of Baffin Bay and the Davis straight into the open sea. They survived for 5 months until pickup by chance by a whaler as the ice flow disintegrated under them. Great story about a cool headed woman who relied on her Inuit skills to keep everyone working together and increasing the chance for survival.

[LInda L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story, which deserved better than it got from Nickerson. She had little to say about the heroine, but managed to wander off and talk about her own mother's illness. It's STILL an untold story !!!!

[Nadia]

An interesting book that in no way justifies its title, though. It really does not seem that the author's chosen female protagonist had any significant role in saving the Polaris expedition.

[Karyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book, though I don’t argue with the disappointment of many reviewers that point out that there isn’t nearly enough about Tookoolito to warrant the subtitle of “the Inuit woman who saved the Polaris” expedition. However, this was the most engaging account of the 19 souls who were adrift on the ice for an entire Arctic winter and then some that I have read to date. Other accounts of the Polaris expedition have had to go back and forth between the party on the ice and the men still on the ship. I do agree with Nickerson, however, that I believe that Tookoolito (and the other Inuit woman, Mersek) did save the expedition; without her expertise in making clothes and cooking with very little equipment, I don’t think all nineteen people would have survived. Certainly the children would have perished much earlier.

The thing that did quite detract from this book for me was Nickerson’s insistence on comparing the Arctic with the declining health (both physical and mental) of her mother. It was rather distracting, and while I absolutely feel for Nickerson, it really had no place in this book.

When the weather warms, I think it’ll be time to make a trip to Groton to pay my respects to Tookoolito.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot recommend this book, which does not at all fulfill the promise of the title. The author needed a good editor to help her shape her book.

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this is titled Midnight to the North: The Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition it tells very little about the only woman on the expedition!!!!

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

An amazing survival story and at times, the action is written quite well. But, the author wanders a lot, even including current day visits to her mother (?!). She clearly did a lot of research and she makes an effort to provide the historical context for the voyage, but it is done awkwardly. She'll write two paragraphs of the actual story and sandwich a couple pages of historic background between them. Lastly, this is not the story of the "Inuit Woman Who Saved the Polaris Expedition." It is barely even the story of an Inuit Woman. She desperately wants to restore Tookoolito to her rightful place in this story, but there isn't enough information to do that. In fact, long stretches of the book go by where the only mention of Tookoolito is the author wondering what she might have thought or felt at a particular moment.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a slog to finish this book, which is full of gross facts about Arctic exploration, from cannibalistic dogs to seal blood as a key source of water when all other liquids are frozen.
The alleged goal of the book was to tell the tale of an Inuit woman who helped the explorers, but the author had so little information to go on that she had to tell the tale completely from the white man's point of view.
The only sections I enjoyed were the brief passages when the author compared her mother's progressing Alzheimer's disease with the journey of the explorers, adrift on an ice floe with no idea where they were headed.

[Sandra D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three and a half stars, rounded up to four. Very interesting, but the author kept wandering off the path. It's surprising that her editor did not cut the bits about the author's aged mother, which did not add to or relate to the story in any away.

[Roxy]

This remarkable story describes the struggles, both physically and mentally, of a crew of explorers surviving the cruel elements on an ice flow.

[Robyn Grad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this after reading Arctic Dreams so had read a bit about the expeditions to the Arctic region. This is an amazing story of survival and loss.

[Selkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, but based almost entirely on the memoir of Tyson