The Truth of Ada Blackjack: Telling her Own Story
In attempting to understand who Ada really was, perhaps the most valuable insight is her personal diary that she had throughout the expedition. Her diary reveals her resilience, courage, and perseverance through an extremely challenging and isolating experience.
Her entries detail the daily struggles involved with embarking on the expedition with no experience or prior training. It presents her as a survivor with a strong spirit who never gives up. She starts not knowing how to hunt or do much else besides sewing, but by the end she manages to effectively hunt food to sustain herself and craft many other essential things. This reveals how she is not a weak helpless woman as some may argue, instead she is powerful and skillful.
The strength she demonstrated is even more impressive considering the emotional turmoil that Ada endured because of her separation from her son and the comments made by the other members of the expedition. Throughout the diary, Ada mentions how deeply she misses her son and her concern about who will look after her if she dies. People often overlook this piece of Ada’s identity, not considering the sacrifice she made coming on the journey. Beyond this, the members of the expedition also displayed malignity towards Ada, the only woman. This was true particularly for Knight after the four other members died. On April 21st she explains “knight started to cruel with me… he never stop and think how much it’s hard for women to take four mans place, to wood work and to hunt for some thing to eat for him and do waiting to his bed and take the shut out for him.” This highlights how challenging the experience was particularly when Knight was taking out his frustrations on Ada. It is also clear that Ada was doing the best that she could given the circumstances. She never displayed violence in return to Knight and instead continued to hunt and give all she could. This is contrary to the narrative the Ada purposely allowed Knight to die.
By the end, Ada appears to be in a state of fear, desperation and loneliness, finishing each entry with a prayer to God for keeping her alive. Ada if anything was a victim on this journey, not a murderer. Despite all that, she endured; never once did she give up. She continued to hone and practice her skills, allowing her to ultimately become the sole survivor of the Wrangel Island Saga.