Ada Blackjack
Encyclopedia
Ada Blackjack, was an Inuit
woman who lived for two years as a castaway
on uninhabited Wrangel Island
in northern Siberia.
. Early in her life Blackjack relocated to Nome, Alaska. She married and gave birth to three children but only one survived past infancy. Her husband left her destitute, and she temporarily placed her son in an orphanage. Soon after, in 1921, she joined an expedition across the Chukchi Sea
to Russia’s Wrangel Island
led by Canadian Allan Crawford but financed, planned and encouraged by Vilhjalmur Stefansson
.
Stefansson sent five settlers (one Canadian, three Americans, and one Inuit
) in a speculative attempt to claim the island for Canada
. The explorers were handpicked by Stefansson based upon their previous experience and academic credentials. Stefansson considered those with advanced knowledge in the fields of geography and science for this expedition.
On 16 September 1921, the team was left on Wrangel Island north of Siberia, to claim the island for Canada or Britain. The team included five people: Ada who had been hired as a cook and seamstress, the American men Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, and Fred Maurer, and a Canadian man named Allan Crawford. Maurer had spent eight months in 1914 on the island after surviving the shipwreck of the Karluk
.
The conditions soon turned bad for the team. After rations ran out, the team was unable to kill enough game on the island to survive. So, on 28 January 1923 three men tried to cross 700 miles across the frozen Chukchi Sea to Siberia for help and food, leaving Ada and the ailing Lorne Knight behind. Knight was afflicted with scurvy
and was cared for by Ada until he died in April 1923. The other three men were never seen again. And so, Ada was utterly alone except for the company of the expedition's cat, Vic.
Ada learned to survive in the icy world until she was rescued on 19 August 1923 by a former colleague of Stefansson's, Noice. Some newspapers called her a real "female Robinson Crusoe". Ada used the money she saved to take her small son Bennett to Seattle to cure his tuberculosis
and had another son Billy. Eventually, Ada returned to the Arctic where she lived until the age of 85.
She was quiet and hated the media circus that developed around her and the attempts by her rescuer Noice and Stefansson to exploit her story. Except for the salary that she made on the trip and a few hundred dollars for furs that she trapped while on Wrangel, Ada did not benefit from the subsequent publication of several very popular books and articles concerning this disastrous voyage.
Ada Blackjack was buried in Anchorage, Alaska.
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
woman who lived for two years as a castaway
Castaway
A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade their captors or the world in general. Alternatively, a person or item can be cast away, meaning rejected or discarded...
on uninhabited Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland...
in northern Siberia.
Biography
Ada Blackjack Johnson was born in Solomon, AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. Early in her life Blackjack relocated to Nome, Alaska. She married and gave birth to three children but only one survived past infancy. Her husband left her destitute, and she temporarily placed her son in an orphanage. Soon after, in 1921, she joined an expedition across the Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...
to Russia’s Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island is an island in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and East Siberian Sea. Wrangel Island lies astride the 180° meridian. The International Date Line is displaced eastwards at this latitude to avoid the island as well as the Chukchi Peninsula on the Russian mainland...
led by Canadian Allan Crawford but financed, planned and encouraged by Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Vilhjalmur Stefansson
Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.-Early life:Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had emigrated from Iceland to Manitoba two years earlier...
.
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
) in a speculative attempt to claim the island for Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The explorers were handpicked by Stefansson based upon their previous experience and academic credentials. Stefansson considered those with advanced knowledge in the fields of geography and science for this expedition.
On 16 September 1921, the team was left on Wrangel Island north of Siberia, to claim the island for Canada or Britain. The team included five people: Ada who had been hired as a cook and seamstress, the American men Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, and Fred Maurer, and a Canadian man named Allan Crawford. Maurer had spent eight months in 1914 on the island after surviving the shipwreck of the Karluk
Karluk
Karluk can refer to many different things:* HMCS Karluk, a ship crushed and sunk by Arctic ice in January 1914* Karluk, Alaska, a town in the USA* Karluk River, a river on Kodiak Island in Alaska...
.
The conditions soon turned bad for the team. After rations ran out, the team was unable to kill enough game on the island to survive. So, on 28 January 1923 three men tried to cross 700 miles across the frozen Chukchi Sea to Siberia for help and food, leaving Ada and the ailing Lorne Knight behind. Knight was afflicted with scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
and was cared for by Ada until he died in April 1923. The other three men were never seen again. And so, Ada was utterly alone except for the company of the expedition's cat, Vic.
Ada learned to survive in the icy world until she was rescued on 19 August 1923 by a former colleague of Stefansson's, Noice. Some newspapers called her a real "female Robinson Crusoe". Ada used the money she saved to take her small son Bennett to Seattle to cure his tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and had another son Billy. Eventually, Ada returned to the Arctic where she lived until the age of 85.
She was quiet and hated the media circus that developed around her and the attempts by her rescuer Noice and Stefansson to exploit her story. Except for the salary that she made on the trip and a few hundred dollars for furs that she trapped while on Wrangel, Ada did not benefit from the subsequent publication of several very popular books and articles concerning this disastrous voyage.
Ada Blackjack was buried in Anchorage, Alaska.
External links and references
- The Ice Master and Ada Blackjack Jennifer Niven's non-fiction works on Wrangel Island and Ada Blackjack
- The heroine of Wrangel Island by historian Alexandra J. McClanahan, site http://www.litsite.org/index.cfm?section=History%20and%20Culture&page=Life%20in%20Alaska&ContentId=850&viewpost=2