What Sort of a Person Do You Think Was Ada Blackjack?

Ada Blackjack was a real person, an Inupiaq woman born on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska in 1898. She is best known for being the sole survivor of a disastrous attempt to colonize Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean.

Blackjack grew up in a traditional Inupiaq lifestyle, living off the land and traveling by dogsled. She married at a young age and had two children, but both her husband and children died of tuberculosis.

Desperate to support herself and her surviving family, Blackjack turned to sewing and trapping animals for fur.

In 1921, Blackjack was recruited by American explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson to join an expedition to colonize Wrangel Island. Stefansson promised Blackjack and the other recruits that they would be paid well and have plenty of food.

The expedition was ill-prepared and quickly ran into trouble. The ship that was supposed to bring supplies and reinforcements became trapped in ice and had to turn back.

The colonists were left stranded on the island with little food and no way to get home.

As the winter dragged on, conditions on the island deteriorated. The colonists were forced to eat seals and seagulls just to stay alive.

By the spring of 1923, only four of the original twenty-five colonists were still alive, including Blackjack.

The remaining survivors decided to try to walk across the ice pack to Siberia, where they knew there were people who could help them. After weeks of walking, they were finally rescued by a Russian trapper.

Blackjack was the only member of the expedition to make it home alive.

Ada Blackjack was an Inupiaq woman who survived a disastrous attempt to colonize Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. She is best known for her courage and determination in the face of extreme adversity.