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.
Ada Blackjack Joined the Wrangel Island Expedition for $50 a Month
Ada Blackjack, born Ada Deletuk in 1898, was born in Spruce Creek, Alaska. Her mother moved her to Nome when she was eight, where she was raised in a Methodist missionary school and taught to read, write, cook and sew.
At 16, Blackjack married Jack Blackjack. She had three children, but only her son, Bennett, survived past infancy. Her husband eventually deserted her and Bennett, and she placed her son in a Nome orphanage while seeking employment as a seamstress.
In 1921, explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson came to Nome looking for English-speaking Alaska Native families to join an expedition to Wrangel Island. He offered Blackjack a salary of $50 a month. The National Park Service says she needed the money and hoped to reunite with her son.
Five Humans and a Cat Traveled to Wrangel Island
Stefansson recruited Allan Crawford, Milton Galle, Fred Maurer and Lorne Knight to carry out the expedition. Blackjack was the only woman and the only Iñupiaq member of the group.
The expedition also included a cat named Victoria, known as Vic. The cat had been born on the ship the men had taken to Nome and was given to them by the ship’s captain.
The group left for Wrangel Island on September 9, 1921.
The Relief Ship Did Not Reach Wrangel Island in 1922
The expedition members expected a relief ship during the summer of 1922, but it did not reach the island. By the time Stefansson secured funding for the relief effort, sea ice had blocked the ship’s passage.
The group’s supplies had dwindled, they struggled to find enough food and they were running out of ammunition. Lorne Knight was showing signs of scurvy.
In January 1923, Crawford, Maurer and Galle took the remaining sled dogs across the sea ice toward Siberia in search of help. The three men were never seen again. Blackjack, Knight and Vic remained on Wrangel Island.
Ada Blackjack Cared for Lorne Knight as His Scurvy Worsened
As Knight’s scurvy progressed, he became too sick to leave his bed. Blackjack became the sole caretaker of the camp and also began showing signs of scurvy.
The National Park Service says Blackjack had started the expedition without experience in hunting, trapping and other survival skills. She taught herself to shoot a rifle and used it to hunt and defend the camp from polar bears.
Blackjack gave Knight most of the food she hunted and trapped, cared for his bed sores and read to him. Knight died on June 23, 1923, and Blackjack recorded the date in her diary.
Ada Blackjack Survived Alone With Vic
After Knight died, Blackjack could not move his body from his sleeping bag. She constructed a barricade of wooden boxes around him to protect his body from animals and moved herself to the storage tent with Vic.
According to the National Park Service, Blackjack reinforced the storage tent with driftwood, built a sleeping platform, made a stove from empty kerosene cans and built an observation deck on top of the tent to watch for polar bears.
She also built skin boats for seal hunting, hunted birds, trapped foxes, collected eggs and sewed warm clothes while suffering from symptoms of scurvy.
Dartmouth Libraries preserves Blackjack’s diary from March through August 1923 and identifies her as the sole survivor of the Wrangel Island expedition. Its collection also documents Blackjack with Vic aboard the rescue ship in 1923.
Ada Blackjack Was Rescued on August 20, 1923
On August 20, 1923, Blackjack awoke to a noise outside her tent and saw a ship through the fog. She ran to the beach, expecting to see Crawford, Maurer and Galle.
The National Park Service records that after Harold Noice, Stefansson’s associate, spoke to her, Blackjack realized she was the only survivor. A historical photograph shows Blackjack holding Vic aboard the rescue ship, the Donaldson.
Dartmouth Libraries also preserves an image of Blackjack with Vic aboard the rescue ship and her diary from the final months of the expedition.
Ada Blackjack Spent Nearly Two Years on Wrangel Island
Blackjack left for Wrangel Island on September 9, 1921, and was rescued on August 20, 1923.
Of the five human members of the expedition, Crawford, Maurer and Galle were never seen again after leaving for Siberia, while Knight died on June 23, 1923. Blackjack was the only human member alive when the rescue ship arrived. Vic, the expedition’s cat, also survived.
