Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic

I have become a junkie for true hardship books, and the arctic exploration books are my first love- they are what took me down this road. Jennifer Niven does a fine job of fleshing out and making real each person, each family, each government that was involved in these missions into the mostly unknown and proven deadly arctic areas of the world. She lets us know what makes people tick, influences like nationality, religion, sex, race, class- each person comes with their background and reasons for their actions and beliefs explained as fully as possible. These people are made real and human, so you get their shortcomings and faults, not just a politically correct whitewashing that fits in to our modern world view. The ways of the world were different then, Ada was (mis-)treated the way a female eskimo rated within that world. It is all a sad story, really. Ada often was her own worst enemy. Those poor boys were so full of faith in their leader, who deserved none of it. If I go on I will end up giving too much story away. Good book- get hooked and read more arctic exploration books! And always remember to QUESTION AUTHORITY!

Absorbing account of an Inuit woman who was the sole survivor of a tragic Arctic expedition and her four male companions who did not make it. Born Ada Delutuk in 1898, when she was eight she was taken in by Methodist missionaries in Nome and talk to read, write, sew and cook. At sixteen she married Jack Blackjack, was divorced at 21, one son out of 3 children survived, but she was unable to care for him because of his tuberculosis. She was persuaded to accompany a group of young men on a land claims expedition to Wrangle Island, a desolate place above the Arctic circle between Canada and Siberia, to cook and sew for them. For Ada the money is good and will enable her to support her son she is promised the mission will be for one year only and that two other Eskimo families will accompany them, but they abandon the mission at the last moment. This mission had been organized by Vilhjalmur Steffanson, an irresponsible publicity seeker who influenced the young men to go, in their eyes Steffanson was a hero. It was his opinion that it was as easy to live in Arctic as anywhere else, nothing to it, though he himself had never done it, and had already led a disastrous mission once before, he had abandoned his crew and men had died. Ada and her companions set out in September 1921, under supplied but even so they survived. After a year though the relief crew and ship promised by Steffanson did not arrive and then things became more desperate as supplies were too low to survive another winter. It was decided that Ada would stay with one of the men too sick to travel and the other three would strike out across the ice for the Siberian coast When the ship finally did arrive in 1923, Ada was alone. The author has done an incredible job of taking a dry event from the past and making it come to life. This is a great historical novel and I have put her book "The Ice Master" on my list of books I want. There are numerous excerpts from newspaper articles written at the time and letters written between the families left behind. I loved Ada's story of The Lady in the Moon, and found it striking that she was able to survive under formidable conditions but had trouble functioning in a city. Her life of drinking, TB and broken marriages is sad, but she still shines through as an inspiration and a survivor.

If you like inspirational stories, this is a great one. Ada Blackjack is an amazing woman, every inch a hero, even though she is also a flawed, fallible person. That makes her even more likable and easy to identify with. I highly recommend this book to anyone craving a good story, a good adventure, or inspiration. I will think twice about complaining about the mundane daily details of my life now, after reading what Ada and her colleagues endured.

Not many of us have ever heard of an island that is generally barren, frozen and rocky through most of the year located in the Arctic Ocean between the East Siberian Sea and the Chukotsk Sea-Wrangel Island.In 1921, a Canadian explorer, Vihjalmur Stefansson, sent four young men, only one an actual British subject, and one Eskimo woman, Ada Blackjack, to Wrangel Island. The objective was to claim the island for Great Britain, and to prove that it was possible to survive in this "godforsaken" place, notwithstanding its cruel climate and terrain.The original venture was only to be a vanguard for a grand and elaborate further British expedition that was to join the group the following summer. Unbeknown to the four young men, the expedition was never approved or supported by the British Government, and Stefansson never joined the group the following summer.In fact, Stefansson was more interested in self-aggrandizement with his lecturing tours and writings than he was with the welfare of the group.Jennifer Niven, author of Ada Blackjack A Story Of Survival In The Arctic, has brilliantly pieced together, through her extensive research of diaries, journals, letters, unpublished manuscripts, papers that were written by the four young men, their families, and the Eskimo woman, Ada Blackjack, a vivid picture as to what had transpired, while these brave, naïve, and inexperienced individuals lived on the island.What is so tragic about the entire expedition is that only one individual survived, Ada Blackjack. Three members, due to a shortage of food, left the party for the Siberian coast, and the fourth one died of scurvy, while being under the compassionate care of Ada Blackjack. As for Stefansson, he managed to more or less protect his reputation, while casting the blame of this disastrous and ill- prepared venture on others. If there is a lesson in Ada Blackjack A Story Of Survival In The Arctic it is that sometimes fear combined with religious faith turns out to be your savior. Although, Ada Blackjack may have initially feared hunting, as well as living with a sick person, whom she was forced to care for, it was these fears that ultimately contributed to her survival.Was Ada Blackjack brave? When asked to comment, she would say, "Brave? I don't know about that. But I would never give up hope while I'm still alive."It was probably this hope that continued to help her survive after her return from Wrangel Island, as her life was filled with turmoil, poverty, sadness, slander, illness, and constant escape from a taunting society.Niven's prose is truly a remarkable, absorbing and powerful read. In two words, it is irresistibly readable. You are immediately hooked by the author's ease of recapturing the intensity and history of the expedition, and the vivid dialogue of the story's principal characters. You are also taken in by the way Niven has admirably focused a great deal of her story on the first Eskimo heroine, Ada Blackjack. Norm Goldman Editor of Bookplea

Like so many others I've devoured every book on polar exploration that I can get my hands on. I was a big fan of Niven's Ice Master and knew I wanted to read whatever came next from her. Then here came Ada Blackjack, the most unforgettable hero to ever walk out of the Arctic. The fact that she's a woman in a (largely) man's world, that she lacked all knowledge of polar survival, and that she was the only one to walk away from a horrific expedition (after teaching herself all the skills needed to survive) makes her compelling enough, but Niven's story of this obscure, inspiring Eskimo woman transcends the adventure genre and introduces us to a simple, real-life, unexceptional woman who became movingly, unforgettably exceptional.