The expedition’s failure to make use of available plant foods during the island’s brief summer seasons was part of what allowed scurvy to take hold and worsen.

Western food culture, particularly among young men of the 1920s, did not include the consumption of raw Arctic plants.

Iñupiat food culture did — specific plants were known, their properties were understood, and their seasonal availability was tracked as part of the annual subsistence calendar.

Ada Blackjack, in her diary, records collecting bird eggs during the summer months — another traditional Iñupiat food source during the summer nesting season.

This instinctive or learned supplementation of her diet with available seasonal foods was part of what kept her healthier than the men.