The Inuit Woman Who Survived the Arctic Alone
From Quiet Canines Podcast · 3:00
Show by Michael
Ada Blackjack was an Alaskan Inuit woman who joined an Arctic expedition to Wrangel Island in September 1921. The crew included four men and a cat. Her job was to sew clothing out of animal hides so the men could survive the winter.The team was planning to live off six months’ worth of supplies before being relieved a year later with a new crew. But when a ship did not show up in the summer of 1922, they struggled to find enough food to sustain themselves, and they were running out of ammunition.They grew weaker and weaker, especially Lorne Knight, who was showing signs of scurvy.In desperation, three of the men headed off across the sea ice towards Siberia in January 1923. They were never seen again.Knight had sores all over his body. His gums loosened, his teeth fell out, and blood seeped from his skin and nose. Ada fed him, cared for his bedsores and read to him. In return, he yelled and threw books at her. Knight died on June 23, 1923.Rather than give in to despair, Ada reinforced the walls of the storage tent with driftwood, built a sleeping platform, made a stove out of empty kerosene cans, and built an observation deck on top of the tent to watch for polar bears. She built skin boats for hunting seals. She hunted birds, trapped foxes, and collected eggs.Finally, on August 19, 1923, a rescue ship arrived.Ada had been on the island for 703 days, 57 of them alone. Newspapers called her the female Robinson Crusoe.If you want to learn more about Indigenous history, join our growing Substack community. We are still accepting new members to our tribe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit quietcanines.substack.com/subscribe
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