The Native Alaskan Survival Story That Revealed How Indigenous Knowledge Helped Humans Adapt To One Of Earth’s Harshest Environments

She was alone on Wrangel Island.

The other three men had been swallowed by the sea ice five months earlier.

Lorne Knight was dead.

Victoria the cat was alive.

And Ada Blackjack had to survive two more months until a ship might possibly appear.

The Solitary Summer

The two months between Knight’s death in late June 1923 and the arrival of the Donaldson in August were the period during which Ada’s survival became something that the rescue crew would later describe, in their notes, as evidence that she could have continued indefinitely.

She was still trapping foxes, still shooting birds, still managing the camp, still dealing with the polar bears that were a constant presence around the site.