But they had not fully succeeded.

When her life required it, she reached back toward that knowledge and reconstructed enough of it to survive.

The men who organized the Wrangel Island expedition had understood, correctly, that Iñupiat knowledge was the key survival variable in the Arctic.

Stefansson had built his entire “Friendly Arctic” argument on the premise that Indigenous peoples had proven the Arctic was survivable.

What he failed to extend was the logical conclusion: that the knowledge those peoples possessed was the reason it was survivable, and that knowledge was not transferable through a brief period of contact.