An Iñupiaq woman’s lesson in courage

The year was 1921 and Ada Blackjack was recruited as a seamstress for an expedition to Wrangel Island … unknowingly, the only Alaska Native woman on the trip. In 1922, a ship with supplies did not arrive, and in January 1923, three of the five men on the team went in search of help and failed to return.

Blackjack cared for the remaining man, who died from scurvy, and on her own (except for a cat for company), she built a stove, hunted, trapped foxes, made her own clothing and protected herself from polar bears until rescue came later that year.

– Eve Lederman, The Alaska 100