Marooned in the Arctic: The True Story of Ada Blackjack
Leaving home at such an early age Ada never learned the traditional skills of her people skills she would desperately need in the future such as hunt ing trapping fishing firing a gun living of the land and building a shelter Instead she was introduced to the skills that white society valued She learned to read and write at an elementary level to speak Eng lish rather than her native Inuit language to read the Bible and to pray She also received training in cleaning cooking sewing and basic hygiene The one Eskimo trait she did develop was the ability to sew animal furs into clothing Like most Eskimo girls Ada married young at the age of 16 The couple moved to the Seward Peninsula After several gold rushes had emptied the mines there the community had turned into a sup plier of reindeer meat The processing of huge herds required a great deal of manpower Perhaps Ada's husband Jack Blackjack went to the Seward Penin sula to find such work He had previously worked as a hunter and a dogsled driver The marriage did not go well Not long after the wedding Ada realized her husband had a cruel streak She endured Jack beating her and starving her for six years because she wanted to protect their three children After two of them died the causes are unknown Jack deserted her leaving her and one son alone Ada struggled with the devastating loss of her children and with caring for the surviving boy Ben nett who had
When Bennett was five years old Ada divorced her husband before he could return and mistreat her again She and her son moved to Nome Alaska where her mother then lived Ada and Bennett made the entire 40 mile trip on foot When the child was too tired to walk his mother carried him After reaching their destination Ada eked out a living by cleaning houses and sewing clothes for miners But Bennett needed medical care she could not afford so she placed him in the Jesse Lee Home for Children a Methodist orphanage that accepted both parentless children and those whose parents could not care for them often because of their own illness such as tuberculosis the most prevalent and most dreaded disease in Alaska at that time Victims had to be placed in sanatoriums to lessen the spread of the disease thus forcing their children into orphan ages Ada's driving focus became finding a better pay ing job so she and Bennett could be together again One evening when Ada was on her way home from cleaning a house E R Jordan the police chief stopped her as she walked by the station He had known Ada most of her life and was familiar with the circumstances of her marriage and with Bennett's medical condition He knew she needed money for her son's care so he mentioned to her that a group of men were headed to Wrangel Island a remote and uninhabited Arctic island almost 600 miles north of Nome surrounded by the Chuchki Sea The men were recruiting Eskimos to go with them to sew fur
clothing while they were on the island Ada was a superior seam stress and her ability to speak English would be another plus Jordan shared with her what he had heard about the trip north but at that time had no knowledge of the real purpose of the expedi tion Jordan told her that Vilhjalmur Stefansson a noted Canadian and Arctic explorer was organizing and arranging financing for the expedition although he did not plan to participate He would stay behind to continue fund raising through his lecture tours and to seek private backing for another exploration to search for a continent north of Wrangel Island Stefansson personally selected four young men to represent him on the current exploration He used his strong personality reputation and powers of per suasion to convince them to carry out the colonizing expedition while he remained at home The chosen members included Errol Lorne Knight a big 28 year old outspoken happy go lucky American from McMinnville Oregon he had been on a prior north ern expedition with Stefansson Frederick W Maurer another 28 year old from New Philadelphia Ohio had been a member of Stefansson's five year Cana dian expedition Joining Maurer and Knight was their fellow countryman 19 year old Milton Galle from New Braunfels Texas who was Stefansson's secre tary when they traveled on the Chautauqua lecture circuit The fourth member was 20 year old Canadian
Allan R Crawford a student at the University of Toronto An 1867 law classified all Canadians as British subjects so Stefansson named Crawford as leader of the team His British citizenship would be necessary to claim the island for Great Britain Since Crawford had not been to the Arctic his position was only nominal Knight headed the team because of his previous experience Stefansson told the men that he could afford to pay only minimal salaries and noth ing at all to young Galle whom he had not planned to add to the expedition For compensation Galle could have a percentage of any furs that he brought back with him at the expedition's end Despite that all of them could hardly wait to start their trip and felt quite proud that Stefansson trusted them to carry out his mission The Victoria embarked from Seattle with the four young men aboard on August 18 1921 Knight's par ents were at the docks to see them off The men promised they would write when they arrived at Nome a voyage of four or five days Those communi cations would be their last with their families until a relief ship was scheduled to go to Wrangel in 1922 Stefansson swore the young men to secrecy about their true purpose in going to Wrangel Island An excerpt from Galle's letter to Stefansson at that time illustrated the high spirits of the men as they deliber ately misled passengers on the Victoria about their reason for going to the
