In 1921, Alaskan seamstress Ada Blackjack joined an Arctic expedition for $50 a month; nearly two years later, she was rescued as its only surviving person

In 1921, Ada Blackjack joined an Arctic expedition to Wrangel Island after being offered $50 a month. Nearly two years later, on August 20, 1923, she was rescued as the expedition’s only surviving human member.

Blackjack, who was a 23-year-old Alaska Native seamstress, joined the expedition because she needed the money and hoped to earn enough to bring her son, Bennett, home from a Nome orphanage, as per a National Park Service report. She left for Wrangel Island on September 9, 1921, with four men and an expedition cat named Vic.