“If I be known dead”: The Story of Ada Blackjack

In the fall of 1921, Ada Blackjack (Iñupiaq) was offered fifty dollars per month to join a year-long expedition to Wrangel Island as a seamstress. The Arctic expedition was conceived by Canadian-American Arctic explorer, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who wanted to colonize the island for a Western power. Although Ada lacked Arctic experience and had misgivings about being the only Iñupiaq person—and the only woman—on the team, she desperately needed the money. 

Ada had arrived in Nome, Alaska earlier that year with her five-year-old son, Bennett. The two walked the entire forty miles to Nome from the Seward Peninsula after Ada’s abusive husband abandoned the family. Ada initially subsisted on meager work she found as a seamstress and housekeeper, but when Bennett contracted tuberculosis, she could not afford his care and had to place him in a children’s home. This separation was devastating. 

Stefansson recruited four eager young men for the colonizing party–Allan Crawford, Lorne Knight, Frederick Maurer, and Milton Galle. They attempted to hire a team of Iñupiat guides, but persuaded only Ada to join the expedition. Stefansson himself stayed behind to secure government support for a continuous occupation of the island. 

Crawford claimed the island for Canada. But at the end of their first year, sea ice blocked the prearranged relief ship from reaching the island. In January 1923, fearing starvation, Maurer, Galle, and Crawford set off for Siberia on foot, never to be heard from again. 

Ada was rescued in August 1923 by the Donaldson, a ship captained by Harold Noice. Noice took Ada back to Nome, Alaska, and kept both Ada’s and Knight’s diaries, promising to hand them over to Stefansson. But he would soon deface Knight’s diary and spark wild rumors around Ada’s survival.

Artwork made by Indigenous Arctic peoples often depicts aspects of life in the Arctic. The objects in this case help illustrate the everyday experiences of the explorers on Wrangel Island.

Euro-American Arctic expeditions relied heavily on the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples to skillfully navigate the Arctic environment. Clothing and equipment such as snow goggles, skin scrapers, and parka ruffs were necessities. The explorers, equipped with fox traps, rifles, and a copious amount of bullets, expected to be able to live off the land. During their first year, the explorers often encountered polar bears, walruses, and seals, and hunted enough to sustain themselves. Animals like ducks and other birds were seasonal. 

For a long time after her rescue, Ada held out hope that Maurer, Galle, and Crawford would be found alive. Although her initial months on the island were filled with fear, paranoia, and punishment, Ada had grown to care for each of the men. She’d worked hard, sewing and cooking as needed. When she felt homesick, she told the men stories she’d grown up hearing from her elders.