Ada Blackjack - a brave female Robinson Crusoe in the Arctic.

Alaskan-born Ada Deletuk (1898-1983) was an indigenous Inuit. They were a hunt­ing people, eating fish, walrus, seals, whales, car­ibou and bears. Ada saw, but did not learn hunt­ing and surviv­al skills. She moved to Nome and was brought up by Meth­odist mis­sion­aries who taught her Engl­ish, Bible studies, house­keeping and sew­ing. Colonised by Russians since late C18th, AK had been acquired by the U.S in 1867.

Ada Blackjack (centre front) and her four colleagues

on Wrangel Island, 1921

Photo credit: Oceanwide Expeditions

At 16 she un­hap­pily married a dog-team driver, Jack Black­jack. They had 3 children, two of whom quickly died be­fore Jack aband­oned 5 years old tubercular Ben­nett. The divorce left Ada without money, so she left her sick son in an orphanage and looked for work.

In 1913, Canadian anthropologist-arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stef­ansson led a voyage into the Arctic. The team split and one group survived on the rich wild­life of Wrangel Island, 200 miles NE of Sib­er­ia. Stef­an­s­son pro­p­osed the idea of a Friend­ly Arct­ic, claiming the island for Canada and Britain as a way­station for those crossing via the frozen north. But the ex­p­edit­ion failed.

In 1921, Stef­ansson organised another expedition to Wrangel Island. The team had 4 young explorers: Allan Craw­ford 20, Lorne Knight 28, Fred Maurer 28 and Milton Galle 19. They planned to live on the uninhab­ited land, in order to claim the territory for the British Empire. The young men were all excited to go, but only Knight and Maurer knew any­th­ing about Arctic surv­ival.

In Sept 1921 the team sailed on the Victoria from Seattle to Nome. In Nome, Stef­ansson was recruiting an Inuit to assist with camp dut­ies, an Eng­l­ish-speaking seamstress who could repair Arctic furs, coats and balacl­avas. Ada was terrified by polar bears, but they needed a skilled seam­stress, and in any case, Blackjack was financially des­p­er­ate!

Allan Crawford (20) was chosen as expedition leader because he had Canadian-British citizenship, necessary for a British claim for Wrangel Island. Crawford’s men immediately hoisted a British flag, stak­ing their claim for His Majesty King George. Excited Seattle native Lorne Knight had been on previous Arctic expeditions with Stefansson!

Nome USA and Wrangel Island Russia

Google map

Stefansson financed and organised, but did not join the expedition wh­ich called for the team to be dropped off on the isl­and and picked up by ship the fol­lowing year. So the team took only 6 months of sup­p­l­ies, relying on the oc­ean and island to meet their needs. The first months were optimistic - they set up camp and spent their days mapping the island or collecting specim­ens.

Assured by Stef­ansson that a ship would be arriving with more supplies in the summer, the team didn’t attempt to ration their 6 mon­ths’ worth of provisions, which they topped up with the island’s ample wild game. Ada cooked whatever the men caught, seagulls, foxes and polar bears.

But summer’s end saw a bad Arctic winter that brought endless dark­ness and no game. Knight show­ed little sym­p­athy in his diary, blaming the “foolish female for eating all of our good grub". How­ever they all knew that if they survived till summer, the rescue-ship would arr­ive with new team mem­bers and supplies.

After a late departure due to funding problems, the resupply vess­el Ted­dy Bear met the worst ice in 25 years. In Sept 1922 its captain mes­saged Stefansson that the rescue ship had been forced to turn back, propel­ler broken. Stefansson clearly was not overly-con­cern­ed, tel­ling reporters and expedition mem­b­ers’ families that the group was safe in the Arctic. He wrote a book, The Friendly Arctic (1921), saying that reports of the inhosp­it­able Arctic conditions were fake news. Game was abundant and those with common sense could survive, he wrote.

However it soon became clear that de­s­pite Black­jack’s best eff­orts, there wasn’t enough food to keep all of them alive. Knight had severely weakened, with ach­ing joints and sore gums; he knew about scurvy from his previous Arctic expeditions. In early 1923, with starvation looming, Crawford, Galle and Maurer made a tough decision. They started an ambit­ious trek back across the now-frozen sea to fetch help in Siberia. They set off with supplies and the 5 remaining dogs, but after just a couple of days, a vicious gale struck up and the men vanished forever.

Black­jack had to catch meat to keep the deterior­ating Knight al­ive, so she taught herself to shoot with his heavy rifle. For 6 months Ada was doctor, cook, hunter and lumberjack, but Knight const­antly yel­l­ed at her for caring for him bad­ly. When he died in June 1923 Ada coul­dn’t bury Knight’s body, so she built a prot­­ective wall from wild beasts.

Alone in such a vast, silent land­scape was overwh­el­m­ing, but Black­jack pushed on, filling her journal and worry­ing about her son Bennett. In the day she set traps for foxes and shot birds and seals. Even as she wept with frustration, Ada found solace in her Christian faith.

In Aug 1923 Ada heard a wh­istle, ran outside and saw the schoon­er Don­al­d­­son and crewmen wandering about on sh­ore. Salvation had arrived and her two-year ordeal on Wran­gel Is­land ended.

Ada Blackjack and her son Bennett,

Los Angeles Times, Feb 1924

   

Before leaving the island, expedition leaders had ordered her not to speak to reporters or else they wouldn’t pay her. But everywhere she went in Alaska, re­porters rec­ognised Ada and asked how this Robinson Crusoe had survived an ordeal so gh­astly it had killed the heroic male explor­ers. This very private woman finally spoke out only once (to defend herself against accusations she had not done enough to save Knight).

Ada made nothing from the many articles and books published subsequ­ent­ly. Ste­fansson wrote The Adventure of Wrangel Island (1925), ref­erring to Ada's story as the most romantic in Arc­tic history. She had another son, but finances forced her to place the two boys in care for years. She la­t­er moved back to Alaska, worked as a rein­deer herder and lived until 85. Ada’s family buried her in the Anch­orage Memorial Park Cemetery.

Ada Blackjack

Anch­orage Memorial Park Cemetery

Thanks to these excellent references:
Jennifer Niven, Inverted Reader, 2004
Tessa Hulls, Atlas Obscura, 2017
Ellie Cawthorne, BBC History Magazine, 2020
Oceanwide Expeditions Blog