ADA BLACKJACK   

* Mai 1898 in Spruce Creek at Solomon, Alaska as Ada Deletuk | + Mai 1983 in Palmer, Alaska

Ada Blackjack was the sole survivor of an expedition to Wrangel Island in the early 1920s.
After divorcing her abusive husband, Ada had to care for her son alone, who suffered from tuberculosis.
She worked as a cleaner and seamstress, but the cost of medical treatment was too high, and she had to place her son in a children’s home, hoping he would receive proper medical care there.

When she was offered the opportunity to join an expedition as a cook and seamstress, she agreed — the only Indigenous woman on the team. The rest of the crew were white men and a cat named Vic.

The team reached Russia’s Wrangel Island on 16 September 1921. The expedition’s goal was to claim the island for Britain and Canada and to live there for two years.
However, the supplies they had brought ran out after only six months, and their plan to live off the island’s resources did not work in the long term.
Due to the harsh climate, no edible plants grew there, and the animals that lived on the island were polar bears, seals, and Arctic foxes.

A supply ship was unable to reach the island because of the ice, leaving the expedition members entirely on their own. Soon, one of the men contracted scurvy, and the remaining three set out on foot for Siberia to seek help. They have been missing ever since.

Ada cared devotedly for the sick man, and soon realised she was on her own and had to learn how to chop wood, make fire, shoot, and hunt in order to survive.
The 1.50-metre-tall woman, who was constantly fearful and insecure, who always submitted and feared everything (polar bears were her greatest nightmare), fought for her survival.

After the last of the men died from scurvy, she survived another two months alone on the island. She built a platform to spot polar bears earlier, learned to set traps, to hunt, and tenderly cared for the last living being by her side: the cat Vic.

On 19 August 1923, she was finally rescued by a supply boat.
She later received neither the extended pay she had been promised nor the recognition she deserved for her achievements.

This modest, fearful, delicate, and petite woman grew far beyond her limits. In order to survive, she developed an irrepressible and remarkable strength.