{{Short description|Iñupiaq explorer (1898–1983)}} {{Infobox person | name = Ada Blackjack<!-- use common name/article title --> | image = Ada Blackjack with her son Bennett, 1923.jpg | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = Ada Blackjack with her son Bennett, 1923 | birth_name = Ada Delutuk | birth_date = {{Birth date|1898|05|10}} | birth_place = Solomon, Alaska | death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|5|29|1898|1|1}} | death_place = Palmer, Alaska | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Ada Blackjack''' (''née'' '''Delutuk'''; May 10, 1898 – May 29, 1983) was an Iñupiaq woman who accompanied an Arctic expedition to the uninhabited Wrangel Island, north of Siberia, eventually living alone on the island for eight months after the other expedition members left or died.
==Background== Ada Delutuk was born on May 10, 1898 or 1899,<ref name="jstor_daily">{{cite journal |last1=Lepere |first1=Imogen |title=Ada Blackjack's Secret Weapon |journal=JSTOR Daily |date=15 January 2024 |url=https://daily.jstor.org/ada-blackjacks-secret-weapon/ |access-date=16 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pinson |first1=Elizabeth Bernhardt |chapter=4 |title=Alaska's Daughter |date=2004 |pages=52–80 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt46nwzm.7 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt46nwzm.7 |access-date=16 January 2024 |publisher=University Press of Colorado}}</ref> in the remote settlement of Spruce Creek, {{cvt|8|mi}} from Solomon, Alaska. Ada's father died of food poisoning when she was eight years old, and her mother sent her and her sister, Rita, to a Methodist mission school in Nome, Alaska.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Caravantes|first=Peggy|title=Marooned in the Arctic|publisher=Chicago Review Press Incorporated|year=2016|isbn=978-1-61373-098-0|pages=1}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Caravantes |first=Peggy |title=Marooned in the Arctic : the true story of Ada Blackjack, the "female Robinson Crusoe" |date=2016 |isbn=978-1-61373-098-0 |publisher=Chicago Review Press |location=Chicago, Illinois |oclc=907651735}}</ref> She was raised by missionaries who taught her to read English and sew.<ref name="Hulls">{{cite news|last1=Hulls|first1=Tessa|title=Ada Blackjack, the Forgotten Sole Survivor of an Odd Arctic Expedition|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ada-blackjack-arctic-survivor|accessdate=8 December 2017|work=Atlas Obscura|date=6 December 2017}}</ref> At age 16, she married Jack Blackjack, a former hunter and dogsled driver, and moved with him to the Seward Peninsula.<ref name=":1" /> The Blackjacks had three children, only one of whom survived infancy. Jack abused Ada, finally deserting her and their surviving son, Bennett.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="Hulls"/> Ada obtained a divorce before her husband could return and walked {{cvt|40|miles}} with Bennett to Nome, where her mother was living. To survive, Ada cleaned houses and sewed clothes for miners, but was still unable to afford Bennett's tuberculosis treatment.<ref>''Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic'', by Jennifer Niven</ref> Due to this, she temporarily had to place Bennett in the Jesse Lee Home for Children, which could better care for his tuberculosis. Ada became committed to making money to be reunited with her son.
Nome police chief E. R. Jordan was familiar with Ada's situation, so he mentioned to her that some men were recruiting Inuit to go with them on their Arctic expeditions across the Chukchi Sea to Wrangel Island. While Jordan was not familiar with the purpose of the expedition, he believed that Ada, who spoke English and was an excellent seamstress, might be a good fit for the mission, which needed someone to sew fur clothing for the team.<ref name="Hulls" /> The expedition was led by Canadian explorer Allan Crawford but financed, planned and encouraged by Vilhjalmur Stefansson.<ref name="CanGeo">{{cite news |last1=Rowe |first1=Peter |title=Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Ada Blackjack and the Canadian invasion of Russia |url=https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/vilhjalmur-stefansson-ada-blackjack-and-the-canadian-invasion-of-russia/ |access-date=15 July 2022 |work=Canadian Geographic: History |publisher=Canadian Geographic |date=11 March 2022}}</ref> Stefansson remained behind to fundraise for another exploration to search for a continent north of Wrangel Island.<ref name=":1" /> He believed that the Arctic would be easily habitable for those willing to adapt.
==Expedition== thumb|Map of Wrangell Vicinity {{Quote box | quote = If anything happen to me and my death is known, there is black stirp [sic] for Bennett school book bag, for my only son. I wish if you please take everything to Bennett that is belong to me. | source = Ada Blackjack, diary entry, 2 April 1923<ref name="jstor_daily"/> | width = 30% | align = right }}
Stefansson sent five settlers (one European Canadian, three European Americans, and one Iñupiaq, Blackjack) in a speculative attempt to claim the island for Canada.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Niven |first=Jennifer|authorlink=Jennifer Niven|title=Ada Blackjack: A True Story Of Survival In The Arctic |publisher=Hyperion Books |year=2003 |location=New York |pages=431 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oz-c0iVcOOYC |isbn=0-7868-6863-5}}</ref> 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 other sciences for the expedition.<ref name="CanGeo"/>
On 15 September 1921, the team was left on Wrangel Island north of Siberia, to claim the island for Canada or the United Kingdom.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=1923-09-26|title=Woman Sole Survivor of Wrangle Island Party|pages=5|work=The Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83189016/woman-sole-survivor-of-wrangle-island/|access-date=2021-08-10|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Blackjack had many misgivings about joining the expedition, especially because she had been misled to believe she would be only one of many Alaska Native people to join the crew.<ref name="Hulls"/> The team included five people: Blackjack, who had been hired as a cook and seamstress;<ref>Alexandra J. McClanahan, "[http://www.litsitealaska.org/index.cfm?section=History-and-Culture&page=Life-in-Alaska&viewpost=2&ContentId=850 The heroine of Wrangel Island]", ''[http://www.litsitealaska.org/ LitSite Alaska]'', University of Alaska Anchorage.</ref> the American men Lorne Knight, Milton Galle, and Fred Maurer; and Allan Crawford. Maurer had spent eight months on the island in 1914 after surviving the shipwreck of the Karluk.
The conditions on the island were adequate at first, but after a year turned for the worse.<ref name="CanGeo"/> Rations ran out, and the team was unable to kill enough game on the island to survive.<ref name="Hulls"/> On January 28, 1923, three of the men finally attempted to cross the {{cvt|90|mi}} frozen Chukchi Sea to Siberia for help and food, leaving Blackjack and the ailing Knight behind. Knight was affected by scurvy and was cared for by Ada until he died on June 23, 1923. The other three men were never seen again, and so Blackjack was alone, except for the expedition's cat, Victoria.<ref name="Hulls"/> Blackjack survived in the extremely cold conditions for eight months, learning to hunt foxes, build boats, and sew parkas out of reindeer skin.<ref name=":2" /> She was rescued on August 19, 1923<ref name=":0" /> by a former colleague of Stefansson's, Harold Noice.<ref name="CanGeo"/> Some newspapers hailed her as the real "female Robinson Crusoe".<ref name="jstor_daily"/>
Blackjack used the money she saved to take her son to Seattle, Washington, to treat his tuberculosis. She remarried and had another son, Billy. Eventually, she returned to the Arctic, where she lived until the age of 85.
<gallery mode=packed heights=180> Adventureofwrang00stef 0143.jpg|Crawford, Maurer and Knight. Picture taken in Seattle just before party sailed for Nome 1921 Wrangel Island Expedition team.jpg|1921 Wrangel Island Expedition team Adventureofwrang00stef 0261.jpg|Building of a snowhouse Ada Blackjack and Vic on Donaldson.jpg|Ada Blackjack and Victoria on Donaldson Ada Blackjack in winter costume.jpg|Ada Blackjack in winter costume Ada Blackjack removing blubber from a sealskin.jpg|Ada Blackjack removing blubber from a sealskin Knight with a Mammoth tusk found on Wrangel Island.jpg|Knight with a Mammoth tusk found on Wrangel Island Adventureofwrang00stef 0219.jpg|Crawford and the expedition cat Vic Adventureofwrang00stef 0219 1.jpg|Vic sitting on a walrus head </gallery>
==Last years== Blackjack was a quiet person and hated the media circus that developed around her<ref name="CanGeo"/> and the attempts by Stefansson and her rescuer Noice to exploit her story. Except for her expedition salary and a few hundred dollars she had earned for the furs she trapped on Wrangel, Blackjack did not benefit from her ordeal and received no compensation from the books that were written about her.
Blackjack died in the state retirement facility, the Pioneer Home, in Palmer, Alaska, and was buried in Anchorage. Her gravestone includes a plaque reading "Heroine--Wrangel Island Expedition".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Schachar |first=Natalie |date=December 9, 2023 |title=Overlooked No More: Ada Blackjack, Survivor of a Harrowing Arctic Expedition |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/obituaries/ada-blackjack-overlooked.html |access-date=December 12, 2023}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |last1=Stefansson |first1=Vilhjalmur |last2=Knight |first2=John Irvine |last3=Knight |first3=Errol Lorne |title=The adventure of Wrangel Island |date=1925 |publisher=London : J. Cape |url=https://archive.org/details/adventureofwrang00stef/ |access-date=16 January 2024}} *{{cite book|last1=Sonneborn|first1=Liz|title=A to Z of American Indian women|date=2007|publisher=Facts On File|location=New York|isbn=9780816066940|edition=Rev.}} *{{cite book|last1=Healy|first1=Luke|title=How to Survive in the North|year=2016|publisher=NoBrow|isbn=9781910620069}}
==External links == {{commons}} *[https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1055 Ada Blackjack papers] at Dartmouth College Library
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackjack, Ada}} Category:1898 births Category:1983 deaths Category:20th-century Alaska Native women Category:Castaways Category:Chukchi Sea Category:Inupiat people Category:People from Nome, Alaska Category:Sole survivors Category:20th-century Inuit people Category:20th-century Inuit women Category:20th-century Alaska Native people Category:Female polar explorers Category:Inupiat women