And this is what, under survival pressure on Wrangel Island, reasserted itself in the form of a woman who could sew a skin boat when she needed one, who could process animal skins into warm garments when she needed them, whose hands remembered a knowledge the mission school had tried to overwrite.

Four thousand years of adaptation does not disappear in a generation, even when the institution that shaped the generation intended it to.

The Last Discovery — What The Ice Revealed

In 2021, exactly one hundred years after the Wrangel Island expedition departed Nome, a group of researchers published findings about the island that added another layer to the story.

Archaeological excavations on Wrangel Island had confirmed that human populations had occupied the island at least 4,000 years ago — roughly the same period as the Thule expansion that was the origin of modern Iñupiat culture.

These ancient inhabitants of the island had hunted walrus, polar bears, and Arctic foxes.