On Facebook I try to post positive stories and especially on a Monday as the week can be taken up with critical theory, politics and negative observations about the world but try to start the week with positivity and here is one such story to lift your spirits and considers a tale of the Inuit, part of the great 500 nations of North America and Canada that was so much of my early interests
In 1921, Ada Blackjack, a young Inuit mother desperate to provide for her ailing son, joined an Arctic expedition as a seamstress. She wasn’t an explorer, nor a hunter—just a woman trying to earn money.
The mission, led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, sought to claim Wrangel Island for Canada. Ada was the only woman, and the only Inuk among four white male explorers. When supplies ran low, the men set off for help across the ice… and never returned.
Ada was left behind with a dying teammate and a cat named Vic. Soon, it was just her and Vic—alone in subzero wilderness, 700 miles from help.
She taught herself to shoot a rifle. She fended off polar bears with a knife. She sewed her own mittens when her fingers froze. She trapped foxes. Ate seal. And through it all, Vic curled close to keep her warm.
Two years later, rescuers arrived. She was still alive. Thin. Worn. But unbroken.
The world nearly forgot her.
The men got the headlines.
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