Ada Blackjack and a Cat Named Victoria

Join us today as we introduce you to a little-known Native Alaskan Hero--Ada Blackjack. Plus, our secret recipe for smoked chicken enchiladas, how not to do a beer podcast, and whether or not Elon Musk would have settled the arctic.

Sources:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ada-blackjack-arctic-survivor
https://www.outsideonline.com/2274756/inuit-woman-who-survived-arctic-alone

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Episode Transcript

AJ (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the pod

Pearl (00:02):
Sure Sure We'll go with that

AJ (00:03):
What do you want What we need to catch phrase

Pearl (00:06):
No we're not We don't I'm just being I'm just feeling
weird Okay Do it again

AJ (00:10):
Hello again welcome to the pod episode 18 The pod is an
adult

Pearl (00:16):
I don't even know what to say Okay yeah Welcome to our
podcast If you're if you're herefor the first time we should
just warn you upfront that weare not historians so enter at
your own risk but if you'recoming back you know why it's

(00:39):
because this podcast is awesome

AJ (00:42):
It rocks

Pearl (00:43):
All right today we've got my amazing husband AIG Hearst

AJ (00:48):
as always with me is my beautiful wife

Pearl (00:53):
And this is the stories We forgot

AJ (00:55):
a history podcast for non historians by non historians

Pearl (01:00):
All right So uh we're just gonna we're just gonna jump
into it today the kids are allplaying outside It is after
dinner time and we're justchilling with some drinks up
here we had smoked chickenenchiladas for dinner which if
you've never had smoked chickenOkay So here's what you do first
I should warn you AIG is aPitmaster but it's not that

(01:22):
difficult No offense So um wejust have a Weber and we have
made some pretty incrediblestuff on that Weber

AJ (01:32):
Yeah It's just a Weber kettle grill Real simple And I'm
sure that some of my barbecuingfriends are going to make fun of
me As I described this on thepodcast later Jeremy

Pearl (01:44):
Sure Jeremy listen you've never had our our our a barbecue
I don't think that anyone hashad barbecue better than our

AJ (01:52):
Well he I think that he's the one who told me how to do
the chicken this way Maybe maybeno I think I've improved on it
but I'm sure he's going tonitpick at it Love you Jeremy so
you just light a chimney ofcharcoal You poured into the
little holders in the middle andyou let it warm up Keep the temp

(02:12):
nice and low and you throw somesmoke some wood chips just throw
some smoke in there You put somewood chips on the charcoal and
then you line the edge the outeredge

Pearl (02:25):
So the charcoal is in the insight in the center and the
chicken drumsticks are on theoutside Interesting Hm

AJ (02:32):
Keep it tamped down Nice and low So it doesn't over cook over
heat Yeah

Pearl (02:37):
Yeah I mean yeah So

AJ (02:38):
It's a nice and smoky

Pearl (02:39):
after the chicken drumsticks are done then we take
them meat off the bones and putit into white chicken Enchiladas
Why chicken enchiladas are kindof like a TexMex chicken
enchilada with like lots ofgreen chilies and we like black
beans and some sour cream andcheese And it's just ridiculous
So

AJ (03:00):
it's so so Pearl what are you drinking this evening

Pearl (03:04):
Yeah So you know it's five o'clock here so we are
drinking alcohol let's seeTonight I am drinking

AJ (03:12):
like we should cheers but we're too far

Pearl (03:13):
too far apart to chairs tonight I need to look at my Oh
you have mine in front of youWhat am I drinking tonight

AJ (03:20):
Curl tonight You are drinking blue moon ice coffee
blonde brewers

Pearl (03:27):
So that is a blonde

AJ (03:29):
Golden colored wheat ale made with fair trade decaf
coffee

Pearl (03:33):
You know I taste the coffee I taste the blonde ale

AJ (03:37):
I'm just going to take a swig out of the

Pearl (03:39):
so

AJ (03:40):
Oh that is good

Pearl (03:42):
I didn't think I was going to like it It's a very
weird combination to explain tosomeone cause you know blonde
ale has a light light and freshcitrusy finish Yeah it's kind of
an unexpected and I feel like ifI'm going to describe this it's
going to sound gross cause youknow blonde Dale has like a
light and fresh citrusy finishsometimes and it does but the
coffee flavor is really

AJ (04:03):
Coffee's there

Pearl (04:04):
It is not hiding

AJ (04:06):
I wasn't

Pearl (04:06):
a good way I don't I don't know how to describe it

AJ (04:08):
I wasn't sure if you would taste the coffee at all but it's
it's noticeable

Pearl (04:11):
I definitely taste It's it's actually not too dissimilar
from drinking cold brew Coldbrew has a lot of the same
flavor

AJ (04:19):
Yeah I'll give you that All right moving on

Pearl (04:23):
Not expect

AJ (04:24):
Would you tell me what I'm drinking Cause you have my
bubble

Pearl (04:28):
Yeah

AJ (04:28):
it in the coffee family

Pearl (04:29):
yeah so we actually got two coffee Let's see AJS is
coffee Vienna lager And this isby devil's backbone which is a
local brewing company here inVirginia see DB brewing
company.com in LexingtonVirginia Yeah So what do you
think KJ What are your what areyour thoughts here

AJ (04:51):
Maybe it's because it's it's back to back but I definitely
don't think I'm getting notgetting much in the way of
coffee notes on this one It'sgood It's slightly darker It's
more of a Well it's it's anAmber ale right

Pearl (05:05):
Yeah So this one says coffee toast and caramel notes
I'm definitely getting the forsure Taste it and think yeah

AJ (05:12):
Let me go back to the well try it again

Pearl (05:14):
this one's good

AJ (05:16):
It's good Yeah I'm not

Pearl (05:17):
maybe I'm just maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough I
mean I like it but comparativelyI think I like the other one

AJ (05:24):
I think as far as a I think as far as just a beer goes I
actually liked the second one alittle bit better

Pearl (05:31):
Yeah

AJ (05:32):
Because I tend towards darker stuff anyways but the the
light one if you're wantingsomething with a little bit of a
coffee Flavor to it It's it'sthe coffee's there in the first
one It's

Pearl (05:44):
called again What's the blue moon That's like a white
coffee blue

AJ (05:47):
iced coffee blonde A golden colored wheat ale Yeah Okay
They're both good Notdisappointed in either

Pearl (05:56):
Yeah This has been Vienna Copyblogger I feel like I should
it would be easier to compare itto some other logger by devil's
backbone

AJ (06:05):
I'm just not really getting any coffee though

Pearl (06:07):
Yeah I'm not I'm not really sure about the coffee
idea Although I think the coffeeis there and kind of like a
robust finish Well it's kind ofadding like a robust finish to
it

AJ (06:17):
Yeah Yeah I can give you that kind of like when you use
coffee in a barbecue rep You'renot really going for a coffee
Yeah

Pearl (06:25):
I think that's kind of I definitely do taste the coffee
in this but the other one is sodistinctive It's a very coffee
forward So there there you haveit devil's backbone is delicious
but blue moon

AJ (06:38):
edged out by blue moon iced coffee blonde See I don't know I
think I still think I kind oflike the devil's backbone a
touch better overall

Pearl (06:46):
blue moon and try it

AJ (06:47):
Oh yeah Yeah I'm definitely a coffee Definitely a coffee
flavor in there Light enoughthough that you're not

Pearl (06:55):
more I drank the devil's backbone The more I taste the
coffee in it I will

AJ (07:00):
the blue moon You definitely get the coffee like

Pearl (07:01):
I mean blue moon is just so drinkable If you're not a
beer drinker I'm not really abeer blue Moon's pretty pleasant

AJ (07:08):
Yeah Blue Moon's

Pearl (07:09):
beer light It's not light beer

AJ (07:13):
It's pretty good Okay Well enough about this beer

Pearl (07:16):
Okay Well sorry about that If you're not if you're not
a beer drinker ale drinker lagerdrinker this has been profoundly
boring

AJ (07:24):
to

Pearl (07:25):
boring for you And for that I deeply apologize but you
know what You're still here Sowhose fault is that All right So
J do you have any interestingtidbits from history to share
with us

AJ (07:37):
Well funny you should ask because this day in history
history history history I've gottwo One is one is just briefly
It's a a personal favorite ofmine April 1956 Rocky Marciano

(07:58):
retires as world heavyweightchampion

Pearl (08:01):
Boy

AJ (08:02):
Commence the eye-rolling and groaning

Pearl (08:05):
I mean I I liked the Rocky movies

AJ (08:10):
Well the Rocky movies are loosely inspired by rock

Pearl (08:14):
right Sure

AJ (08:15):
Rocky Marciano in 1956

Pearl (08:18):
he's got a lot of burps in

AJ (08:19):
Yeah I got a lot of burps he ended his career as the only
heavyweight champion with aperfect record 49 wins in 49
professional bouts with 43knockouts he started boxing in
the army as a way to get out ofkitchen duty and other less
desirable jobs And I'm surethere were plenty of less

(08:40):
desirable jobs in the army inthe early forties and he won his
first 15 matches by knockout Heuh No no no When he got out of
the army and was a professionalfighter yeah he became
heavyweight champ and hedefended it how many times Like
six times or something but thenuh you know kind of in in his

(09:01):
prime he retired because hewanted to spend more time with
his family which I think isawesome I kind of wish more
professional sports people would

Pearl (09:09):
Right

AJ (09:10):
it quits a little bit earlier It's really sad to see
the see So it is sad 13 yearslater he died in a plane crash
small plane crash but you knowhe got 13 years as a very
wealthy man spending time withhis family I was like Rocky
Marciano great boxer He uh Ithink they I think they make fun

(09:31):
of him in one of the moviessomething about leading with his
face That's kind of how he boxedIt's pretty fun to watch old
video of him All right Here'sthe serious one April 27th, 1994
South Africa holds the firsttheir first multi-racial
elections more than 22 millionSouth Africans turned out to

(09:52):
cast ballots in the firstmultiracial parliamentary
elections And overwhelmingmajority chose anti-apartheid
leader Nelson Mandela to head anew coalition government I'm not
going to go through this wholearticle because it talks a lot
about Nelson Mandela And I thinkwe should cover Nelson Mandela
in one of our podcast episodesbecause you know personally

(10:15):
Again as a non historian I hearplenty about Nelson Mandela but
I don't honestly know that muchabout him but just reading this
Can I have an amazing personamazing life so we should cover
more on him but yeah he won theSouth African presidency in 1994

(10:37):
and held office until 1999 Isn'tthat insane 1994 the first
multiracial elections in SouthAfrica And I'm not sure when let
me see if it kind of so it saysin 1989 FW DeClerck who was the

(11:02):
prior president of South Africasaid he said about dismantling
apartheid And so Dick clerk sobut 1989 is when apartheid was
really being dismantled That isnot that long

Pearl (11:20):
Yeah It's a it's definitely a complex story and
we clearly do not know very much

AJ (11:27):
it clearly all right Pearl what do you have for the main
event Here in this corner wehave Rocky Marciano and in the
other corner

Pearl (11:38):
Well no actually in the other corner we have Ada
blackjack So I actually did apoll on the internet asking
people to vote

AJ (11:52):
often the dark webs

Pearl (11:53):
often the dark web asking people to vote for the topic for
this week's podcast and theoverwhelming majority chose
eight of blackjack So uh yeahtoday we're gonna be talking
about ADA black Jack there's acouple of reasons why I like
this story a I like this storybecause it's a great story about
courage and determination Youfeel better me to tap you on I

(12:15):
mean the tough thing about doinga podcast about beer is just All
the burp we're taking burpbreaks and we're just taking
them editing and mouse So youguys don't have to suffer

AJ (12:25):
I feel like we need to find a good I will say Burt podcast
beer podcast get

Pearl (12:30):
Do they burp on the I mean no one wants to listen to
burping right A hundred percentIf you're listening to a podcast
and all of a sudden there's aburp I would gag I would gag and
go something listen to somethingelse I have no zero interest

AJ (12:45):
I'm just thinking it would be worse with

Pearl (12:47):
much burping in my house all of the time And when I was
married and there was one malein the house years and years ago
and he would burp I would belike Oh look at them So cute
Because and I this is this isnot me being ultra feminine I
just do not have the skills topay the bills Burping is

(13:09):
something that I can only do ifI drink something carbonated
like that is it no otherscenario where I can burp

AJ (13:16):
your disgust is more born out of jealousy

Pearl (13:19):
jealousy Well initially I was like Oh that's cute And then
I had three boys and the firstboy burping like well my
goodness those adorable Theyknow how to burp And the second
one was like Oh yeah burping thethird one the third one burps
all of them The time

AJ (13:35):
highly skilled

Pearl (13:36):
He burps all the time You guys and it's so disgusting And
then he he triggers off a chorusof burps from his brothers It's
just so much burping our houseNo one warned

AJ (13:49):
memories of my childhood

Pearl (13:51):
No one warned me about the

AJ (13:52):
and I was the only boy

Pearl (13:53):
Okay So why are we talking about Burbank Anyways

AJ (13:57):
because we're drinking

Pearl (13:58):
because we're drinking beer Right Okay So we're talking
about the story of Ada Blackjack

AJ (14:02):
black Jack

Pearl (14:03):
and there's a couple reasons I like this story One's
courage of survival anddetermination courage and
determination Second is it's astory about Arctic exploration
which is always crazy And then

AJ (14:19):
I'm

Pearl (14:19):
third and lastly it's a story about hope Yeah We're
going to get into it so thisstory takes place in the early
half of the 19 hundreds

AJ (14:34):
So early half of the 20th century is that what you were
going for

Pearl (14:38):
I don't know

AJ (14:40):
I was wondering

Pearl (14:40):
have I had Goodness gracious

AJ (14:42):
of beer I was kind of wondering how that was going to
come out

Pearl (14:44):
early the early part of the 20th century and you know
leading the 18 hundreds leadinginto the early 19 hundreds
there's just a ton offascination surrounding Arctic
exploration It was like thething If you were really truly
an adventurer at heart youwanted to explore the Arctic

(15:06):
That was like the pinnacle ofmanhood

AJ (15:10):
I wonder if some of those explorers were really bummed out
that they couldn't be explorerslike a hundred years earlier
when people are sailing totropical islands and discovering
those

Pearl (15:18):
right Right Now it's just the Arctic but there's something
super manly about going to theArctic It's like there's so much
survival involved There's somuch of like just testing your
metal you know I think that'swhy it was so intriguing to so
many people and just reallycaptured the interest of humans
I mean people all over the worldwere fascinated with Arctic

(15:40):
travel during this time inhistory I mean that's where our
infamous podcast poop knives andpolar bird coats comes from So

AJ (15:47):
go listen

Pearl (15:47):
and listen to that one I mean make no mistake about it If
Elon Musk Was around in 1905 he100% would have been as obsessed
with going to the Arctic forgetMars Elon Musk would have been
the Arctic guy and would havebeen coming back and telling us
all sorts of crazy stories

AJ (16:07):
But do you think you would have colonized the Arctic
because that's still hasn't

Pearl (16:11):
I don't know Yeah So uh we're going to actually start
off talking a little bit about aman who had basically as much
swagger as Elon Musk

AJ (16:20):
Oh

Pearl (16:22):
But as you'll see in this story swagger isn't always a
good thing So there's this guywe're not actually doing as to
podcast about him because he'snot that interesting but he's an
Arctic Explorer and basically Hehas more swagger than Elon Musk
and probably significantly lessintelligence Let's put it that
way Let's put it that way YeahSo his name is Vilhjalmur

(16:47):
Stefansson and there's a lotmore like um throat clearing
sounds in that name that I'mjust not going to do on the
podcast because yeah I'm not or

AJ (16:56):
eardrums

Pearl (16:57):
Yeah So Stefansson has a storied history by the time he
comes up in this story So that'swhy I'm just going to briefly
introduce him He basically healready did an Arctic
exploration and on thatexploration he fully abandoned
his crew and left them to driftin ice until most of them died

(17:21):
And they ended up at this smallIsland where they were rescued
He

AJ (17:27):
we'll wait He he abandoned his crew crew Where did he go

Pearl (17:31):
he just walked off by himself I think they were just
stuck in drifting in a they werethe ships were stuck in ice and
he just got off and

AJ (17:39):
I mean is that a him abandoning Is that him
abandoning his crew or is thathis crew Not

Pearl (17:46):
Listen I'm just telling you what the media was reporting
in the 19 hundreds Okay yeah sohe doesn't have a great
reputation for success at thispoint with Arctic exploration
he's not actually he's notreally the guy who'd likes to do
the Arctic exploration He talksa really big game so he wants to

(18:07):
do another trip and he wants toclaim this Island That is way up
North of Siberia Say with meSiberia That's so cold You guys
he wants to claim this Islandand he thinks that it's got all
this possibility is like I don'tknow weather station and airport

(18:30):
um kind of like a a spot inbetween continents where people
can go he's got all these grandplans none of them

AJ (18:38):
11

Pearl (18:40):
he's got all these grand plans and he goes to England
He's like guys I'm totally gonnaclaim that content for you And
they're like no thank you Andthen he goes to Canada and he
says the same thing And they'relike Nope pass hard Pass on the
frozen little ship of ice We allpass Siberia So no one wants to
finance the trip So in order toget the trip financed he has to

(19:00):
talk a really big game And he'sbasically just got to get
private Funding Right

AJ (19:05):
Launches a Kickstarter

Pearl (19:06):
So he launches a Kickstarter the first
Kickstarter and all of historyAnd he says ridiculous things
Like if an American family hadthe means to hunt they could
live just as comfortably in theArctic as they could And this
isn't a direct quote This is aparaphrase but it's not that far
off Okay They could live ascomfortably in the Arctic as

(19:28):
they could in suburbia He wasselling it so hard He was
basically like it's not thathard I did it I totally thrived
All you need is a way to shootanimals It's basically cold Sure
Yeah I guess it's cold but it'slike the garden of Eden because
there's food everywhere You willnever ever die in the Arctic of

(19:49):
starvation So what does he do Hesends he he compiles this whole
ship of people for his Arcticcrew and Yeah There's not that
many people that want to goLet's be honest there's five but
there's five people but he doeshave the funding so five people
go and one of them is today'sheroin Ada Blackjack So a little

(20:14):
bit of backpedaling here We'regoing to go back to Ada
Blackjack So ADA is born in 1898She is Inupiaq woman who lives I
think just North of Nome Alaskano Ms Inland It is just cold
inland Alaska So it's prettyintensely Remote she's she's

(20:37):
about 40 miles where sheactually is born is about 40
miles North of Nome

AJ (20:42):
Oh gosh

Pearl (20:43):
Yeah So very remote area her father dies when she's young
and she it's actually kind of acrazy story She and her younger
sister her father gets very verysick And the only hope somehow
is for her and her youngersister when they're very young
probably like 12 and eight tobring their father to Nome or

(21:06):
he's going to die So they packthem up on a dog sled and they
pull him partway there He dieson the trip they return and they
come back there What mother isnow widow I don't know why their
mother couldn't go but

AJ (21:18):
probably had to stay and take care of other children

Pearl (21:20):
take care of little littler children Uh so uh her
mother cannot take care of heranymore and she sends her to a
missionary board boarding schoolso missionary boarding schools
were really common allthroughout North America And of
course Alaska as well duringthis time in history as a way to
kind of culturally assimilateanyways she she goes to the

(21:43):
school and she's basicallytaught the skills that young
women need to survive thrive insociety as household servants
she learns the skills necessaryto be a wife and if she needs to
get a job she can do householdservant work she learns how to
cook and clean And so and youknow just basic stuff like that
She fortunately also learns howto read and write so then at the

(22:05):
age of 16 she gets married andthis is a very common age you
know to get married especiallyat the turn of the century she
gets married to the age of 16and she has three children with
her husband whose name is Jackblackjack It's yeah it's a
terrible name So Jack blackjackunfortunately is not a good
husband He is incredibly abusiveand two of her three children

(22:28):
died infancy So she has onechild he's about five years old
when her husband abandons herand her son

AJ (22:34):
lady's got a rough life

Pearl (22:35):
Yeah And he actually takes her out on a trip out on a
peninsula and then abandons themleaves goes back to the dog Sled
leaves her and her son and justtakes off and she has to carry
him 40 or so miles back to NomeAlaska Yes This is all true So

(22:56):
Ada Blackjack is

AJ (22:58):
Black Jack Yeah Thumbs down

Pearl (23:01):
major villain in this story but he's not the only
villain So she is gosh she gotmarried at 16 23 Okay So she
comes back to Nome Nome is whereher mother is Of course her
mother is destitute and can'tsupport her either And the
problem is that her son has Herson has tuberculosis and she

(23:27):
could not Pay for his medicalcare She was destitute and her
son was really really sick Soshe did the only thing that she
could really in this situationAnd she gave up her son to a
local orphanage in Nome and herplan then So she's given up her
son to an orphanage She's about21 22 No she's about 22 at this

(23:50):
point maybe 23 he is her onlysurviving child and she is just
determined to make enough moneyto pay for his medical care and
take out so he can live with herShe can the only problem is that
she basically she can the onlyskills that she has are sewing
So she's just basically mendingminers clothes This is a towards

(24:14):
the tail end of the gold rush inAlaska And so she's just doing
very menial labor mining

AJ (24:20):
Mindy miters

Pearl (24:21):
mending miners clothes

AJ (24:23):
Mindy's Mindy miners mittens

Pearl (24:26):
and someone tells her about this Arctic expedition and
the Arctic expedition isactually looking for some local
Alaska natives who will join theexpedition because

AJ (24:39):
yes Nome Alaska would be a good recruiting area

Pearl (24:42):
Yeah because Vilhjalmur Stefansson his crew that if they
want to be extra successful Imean obviously you're going to
be super successful because it'sso easy in the Arctic but just
to make your life cushy youshould bring on some native
people because the women and themen the women can sew and they
can make all the clothes andthey can do all the cooking and

(25:05):
all the cleaning and all theeverything with the houses and
whatever they'll say do and thenthe men can like help with the
hunting and show you how to doall this stuff and living in the
Arctics And he's so easy if youhave them with you So they get
all these native people to signup Ida eight to find out about
it She's Elated because they'reoffering to pay her$50 a month

(25:26):
and it's a one-year commitmentSo she thinks to herself well if
I can do this then I can get myson This is a miss like a dream
come true Right Absolute answerto our prayers So um she goes
and she signs up And the daybefore the voyage the voyage
kicks off all of the othernative people back out all the

(25:49):
all of them So then eight iskind of like well this is a
sketchy situation because it'sjust this is 1921 We've got a
single woman Who's 23 years oldgoing on an expedition with a
bunch of men in their earlytwenties Like it doesn't look
good and she's nervous for herown personal safety but she has

(26:10):
no other options here This isliterally just dropped in her
lap and nothing else like itcould possibly come along you
know So in spite of hermisgivings she goes on the she
gets on the boat and it's herit's four other guys sled dogs
and a cat And the cat's name isVictoria obviously after queen

(26:33):
Victoria it was actually one ofyou know one of those just like
old wives tales That's not theright myths legends lore having
a CA a ship's cat was good luck

AJ (26:43):
Oh yeah sure

Pearl (26:43):
so she and the cat are the only girls on this entire
ship and she's just kind of likeshe's very unsure about it She's
really nervous about the idea ofit the boat they the boat takes
off and they had up towardsWrangel Island just past Siberia
So if you look at a map if youGoogle Wrangel Island you have

(27:04):
to spell it with one L w R a N GE L Cause there's actually two
Ringle islands And one of themis just off the coast of I think
Alaska or British Columbia orsomething wrong one This one is
the one that is way way way Ifyou look at on the globe of the
earth you're looking at it inthe same picture as the Arctic
right This is way past SiberiaSo Wrangel Island in order to do

(27:26):
this they have to go all the wayaround they would've been taking
off from Nome So if if they'retaking off from Noam there's a
narrow neck there between Alaskaand Russia they have to get
through before it freezes overand then they have to get up
into they have to get up pastAlaska and Siberia to this

(27:47):
little chip of ice up therecalled Wrangel Island Wrangel
Island is now Russian

AJ (27:53):
Yeah Now to be fair to Mr Stevenson Google is telling me
that Wrangel Island is amountainous Island with vast
wildlife So he wasn't lying

Pearl (28:04):
well he wasn't lying but the vast wildlife is the thing
about wildlife in the Arctic isthat it's harder to get them in
the winter time In fact it'sharder to do anything in the
winter time we actually Oh thisis totally reminded me of that

(28:25):
Netflix show We were watchingalone Oh my goodness There's
there's multiple seasons of itThere was one season that was on
Netflix and I think it's seasonsix or seven and it was
incredible We were justcompletely smelled

AJ (28:37):
I just saw an ad for a new season

Pearl (28:39):
coming up Oh really Yeah

AJ (28:41):
so season seven was pretty amazing

Pearl (28:43):
We went back and watched like season one or two and we
got bored and just stop

AJ (28:47):
yeah And the winner was from Virginia So that's kind of

Pearl (28:49):
cool Yeah We were rooting for him all along but just
absolutely spellbinding showAnyways we'll stop talking about
TV because we're on a podcast SoWrangel Island is way up there
They finally they beat the seaice They get up there and
they've officially arrived sofor some reason I don't really

(29:10):
understand Arctic explorationbut for some reason they were
there to establish their claimon the Island for either Canada
or England whoever was willingto say chicken first right Even
though neither of them had anyinterest in this Island So um
the boat takes them up there Theboat drops them off and the boat

(29:32):
turns around and leaves So nowthey're just there on the Island
it's September It's Septemberand the team has just been left
on the Island for a full year Inone year the ship is going to
return It's going to pick him uptake him back to Nome Alaska
They're going to get all thismoney which they won't even care
about because there'll be so fatand happy after living for a

(29:53):
year

AJ (29:54):
There'll be like no no no We've established a wonderful
village here Turn around shipWe're not ready

Pearl (30:01):
stay Yeah basically So um because it's such an amazing
place to they're going to theyonly need six months worth of
rack worth of rations becausethere'll be living off the land
in no time

AJ (30:13):
Oh my

Pearl (30:15):
Unfortunately fortune favors the prepared because in
their case most of theirprovisions were spoiled by the
time they got there Yes So theyget their a lot of their for a
lot of their provisions arespoiled and Aida's

AJ (30:29):
like a pretty significant oversight

Pearl (30:31):
Yeah it's a pretty big deal Yeah there is actually a
lot of accessible wildlife sothey they're doing okay they're
working really hard and kind ofestablishing their base and just
ADAS learning how to do allthese native skills for the
first time in her life And shewas really clear at the
beginning when she signed upthat you know I was raised in a
missionary school so I don'tactually know how to do all this

(30:53):
in new pack things but They werelike sure sure sure sure sure
sure sure sure You're signing upYou can do this you obviously
can do these things Yeah Soshe's learning how to do these
things for the very first timeever with no smartphone

AJ (31:07):
No wait wait She was doing this without YouTube Is that
what you're trying to

Pearl (31:12):
tell me Basically all of the complicated life skills that
we know how to do our thanks toYouTube 100% I'm not even gonna
lie You guys we figured out howto do so many things So ADA did
not have YouTube or smartphonefor that matter She did not have
a dial of friend feature So sheshe learns how to tan hides and
make clothes and you knowbutcher out giant animals and

(31:34):
cook them

AJ (31:35):
I'm just picturing her like when I was seven I remember
seeing someone do this

Pearl (31:40):
right when I was really little I helped my dad sharpen a
knife one time but Uh so so thenthen winter actually sets in the
fall has been beautiful Thereactually has been a lot of
animals Hasn't been terriblethen winter sets in and the
winter sets in and they're justkind of like Oh this is not
super fun anymore it's freezingcold There are actually a ton of

(32:03):
polar bears on this Island andactual ton literally quite quite
a bit more probably becausepolar bears weigh a lot but the
polar bears are really great atscavenging and they spend a lot
of energy trees trying to keepthe polar bears away and try to
get their own food And EDA isterrified of polar bears She is
It's like when it's one of thosethings you know she grew up as a

(32:24):
little kid hearing stories aboutpolar bears and not gaining any
sort of like adult perspectiveon those stories And so now
she's out in the Arcticsurrounded by angry hungry polar
bears and they're starting tostarve So the crew is not doing
great Yeah

AJ (32:41):
Can they eat the polar bears

Pearl (32:43):
Oh sure You can eat the polar bears You have to get them
first

AJ (32:45):
Polar bears are pretty big big game

Pearl (32:48):
Yeah So by January So they're dropped off in in in
September of 1921 there Okay Thefirst winter they managed to
They managed to have enoughsupplies and hunting to get them
through the first winter thenext summer they're they're
running out of more of theirrations of additional items and

(33:11):
they do okay Hunting But thenext the the second winter that
they're there Is a really badwinter And the reason that it
was so bad is because they weresupposed to have a ship come out

AJ (33:25):
Why did you say weren't they supposed to be picked

Pearl (33:26):
up They were supposed to have a ship come out and pick
them up that next September theproblem is that the ship
attempted to make it and didn'ttime it right And got frozen out
got stuck in sea ice orthreatened to get stuck in sea
ice and had turned around Sofirst one to they're Okay They
get through their second summerThey're now officially out of
everything and they just reallyneed that ship to come The ship

(33:48):
never shows the days we'regetting colder and colder Their
hope is dying away They knowthat it's bout to get really
really bad because here they aremissing a crucial supplies and
heading into their second winter

AJ (34:01):
Yeah Well and they probably didn't really

Pearl (34:04):
stop Not

AJ (34:05):
they were not

Pearl (34:05):
playing They were not planning on being there at all
Yeah it's bad So by January oneof the one of the men is very
sick with scurvy and I don'tknow all the symptoms of scurvy
but scurvy is bad It'll it'llkill you you know

AJ (34:25):
if they named it scurvy it

Pearl (34:27):
Right Scurvy just sounds disgusting

AJ (34:30):
He's got scurvy

Pearl (34:31):
Right Yeah So he's got scurvy he's really really sick
And so the remaining three mendecide that the only that they
must go for help And so I meanjust for context here when we

AJ (34:42):
go where for help

Pearl (34:44):
right So when we did the poop dives and polar bear coats
podcast about Peter frickin theywere talking about that Arctic
exploration trip that they didon dog side That was 600 miles
Right That's like it was likerecord shattering It's in crazy
crazy distance to go but theseguys are hoping to cross the ice
I believe it's 700 miles to getto Nome

AJ (35:07):
They think they can go across the ice the entire way
the

Pearl (35:12):
no it's it's not the entire way What they're going to
do is they're going to go Ithink they're actually going to
go over to Siberia cause that'sclose They're closer to Siberia
than they are Alaska So they'regoing to cross over to Siberia
and then they're going to traveldown the Northern coast of
Siberia until they get to thelittle spot where it's kind of

(35:32):
where Noam is where Siberia youknow super close But essentially
we're talking about like utterdesolation ice flows and dog
sleds

AJ (35:39):
Yeah I mean I wouldn't want to go one

Pearl (35:41):
month and they're all already starving to death So um
the guys are like listen ADAyour gonna stay here and take
care of this guy We're going togo and get help And we'll be
right slash they were not theywere not right back In fact
that's the last anyone ever sawthem

AJ (35:59):
And that's why we're not telling their story

Pearl (36:00):
That's why we're not telling their story So the the
three guys head off they've gotthe dogs with them and it's just
ADA a cat named Victoria and avery sick man

AJ (36:13):
Oh she still has the

Pearl (36:14):
She still has a cat and ADA is determined to keep
Victoria alive because you knowshe needs a companion So um ADA
at this point has to doeverything She can't just cook
and sew and you know just normallittle things around the uh
around the Arctic homestead saidshe has to hunt

AJ (36:34):
the three guys who just

Pearl (36:36):
She has to learn how to shoot guns She doesn't know how
to shoot guns when they

AJ (36:40):
Oh what

Pearl (36:41):
yeah So

AJ (36:43):
they're like

Pearl (36:44):
it seems like an oversight right They're like how
complicated than speed Here'sthe thing ADA blackjack is a
tiny person She weighs under ahundred pounds She is tiny
certifiably small So in order toshoot a gun which I'm sure they
were not small guns becausethey're trying to shoot polar
bears she has to first she hasto figure out a way to set up

(37:07):
She basically sets up a gunstand made out of driftwood that
she can kind of move around withher when she needs to shoot
Cause she can't just shoot a gunwithout landing right Flat on
her back

AJ (37:17):
Well at least with the stand she'd be more accurate

Pearl (37:19):
right Yeah So she gets the she has to figure out how to
get a gun stand set up so sothat she can shoot in the first
place And then she starts targetpracticing with some cans And
finally she moves on to actuallybeing able to use the gun She
also learns some reallyeffective trap Lewers and she
starts trapping foxes

AJ (37:38):
Oh there you go

Pearl (37:39):
So she's figuring it out She does say in her journal she
actually keeps a really detailedjournal during this time And one
of the things that she does sayin her journal is that this is
the most miserable time in herentire life And the reason for
that is because I mean I'll beamended many reasons right She's
left on this Island Her son isin Nome Alaska She has no way of

(38:00):
getting back to him And she iswith a really awful human being
because the man that they lefther with his name is Lauren
Knight And he is basicallyincredibly verbally abusive to
her during this entire timeShe's keeping them alive She's
doing everything for him feedinghim everything and he is just

(38:20):
and she records a lot of theirconversations or his insults in
their journal And they're justreally awful things So she yeah
so she's just kind of and itjust kind of is it's very
representative of Culturalracism towards native people
especially during that time andjust kind of you know
highlighting her worthlessnesswhile she's keeping him alive in
the Arctic with just the two ofthem but she you know she's just

(38:44):
she knows that she can't abandonhim to die And so she just
continues trying to take care ofhim He's getting sicker and
sicker and eventually ineventually by June So now the
men left in January now It'sJune Eventually he dies So now

(39:04):
where she is that's a reallylong time Yeah it was a pretty
awful season but now she isofficially officially alone And
it's just her and Victoria thecat and she starts to do a
little better She's having kindof a great time She makes
herself a really elaboratereindeer coat and I mean she's

(39:26):
got she's got free time Cause itonly takes one person only one
person in cat need food

AJ (39:31):
man This really is like alone I feel like everyone
should go watch that seasonseven of alone so they can have
maybe a touch of an idea

Pearl (39:40):
Right Seriously I know Yeah So I mean the the premise
of the show alone at least onthe season that we watched is
that they took them They took acrew of people out to I don't
know somewhere in Alaska

AJ (39:52):
some remote cold place

Pearl (39:55):
very remote and cold and they dropped them off you know
within Couple miles of eachother And each person was
expected to set up a camp with avery very limited amount of
supplies and see how long theycould survive in the wilderness
with just themselves and an a aGoPro So

AJ (40:10):
a last person standing Yeah And most of them left because
they were starving They couldn'tget food they couldn't get
enough food

Pearl (40:17):
Or they couldn't get the right type of macronutrients
Like they were they had meat butthey were still starving from
fat deprivation anyways so hedoes not this is not her
experience she's doing Okay Andfinally Finally um Vilhjalmur
Stefansson had rallied togethera sort of like rescue mission to

(40:40):
see what who was left on theIsland that he was trying to

AJ (40:43):
Oh so she never

Pearl (40:44):
Oh I forgot to say this Ville Hemmer didn't go because
he was just he had other stuffgoing on you know it's just kind
of busy just he's just he's justgot stuff to do babies to kiss
hands shake you know that kindof stuff So he sends this crew
of people who are not Arcticexplorers out to do this work
for him and claim the Island soeventually he's like

AJ (41:05):
he

Pearl (41:05):
decides to decides to do a rescue mission He gets Canada
to do it on a humanitarian basiscommunity Canada's like we still
don't want the Island dude butyes we'll do this just to take
care of people so the ship Comesout And ADA of course is not
expecting rescue She is actuallybuilding a a boat made out of

(41:27):
animal skins so that she cansail it's it's June air it's
it's late August by the time theship shows up and she is fully
in shipbuilding mode Cause shewants to get out of their boat
building mode Cause she wants toget out of there She's she's got
her own plans Yeah She's she'sgot to get back to him And the
when the ship shows up the shipis actually the captain of the

(41:49):
ship is a man named Harold Noycespelled exactly like that so
Harold Noyce is there to rescueher And I think the entire crew
when they show up is just kindof shocked a all the men are
dead right And she's not doingbadly right Well that that's

(42:10):
actually what happened So um shegets on the boat she comes back
to she gets back to Nome butthen

AJ (42:19):
I've heard I've read of situations like this where only
one pioneer comes walking out ofthe mountains and they seem very
well fed

Pearl (42:29):
Yeah

AJ (42:30):
I'm not saying that's what ADA blackjack Dick I'm just
saying I've heard stories

Pearl (42:34):
Yeah Oh I forgot to say one of the other things that she
did in all of her free time oncethat guy died is she dabbled in
photography because she foundall their photography equipment
And so and I'm actually going topost this on the on Instagram in
our show notes not in our shownotes in the you know the show
podcast on Instagram ADASself-portraits So she's got a

(42:57):
self couple self portraits ofherself just standing out there
in the Arctic just happy as aclam

AJ (43:01):
Oh that's really cool I want to see those

Pearl (43:03):
Yeah so she finally gets rescued They show up she looks
like he's she looks like she'sdoing just fine aside from the
fact that she's you know kind ofmiserably missing her son and
just kind of doing everythingshe has to to get back to him So
when she gets back to Nome she'snot actually allowed off the
ship leave a week because lawenforcement is so certain that

(43:28):
she does she do something badYeah They're trying to figure it
out So fortunately for her she'sgot a full record Well a near
daily record of her activitiesin her journal that she can
refer to and show them

AJ (43:42):
Yeah Okay That will I mean that would be pretty helpful

Pearl (43:45):
and just logistical stuff you know I'm three four giant
men and me so they finallythey're finally you know be
grudgingly accept the fact thatshe probably didn't kill
everyone they let her get offand get her son

AJ (44:01):
did they pay her for all this

Pearl (44:02):
they do not pay her They pay her a little bit They pay
her a small portion yeah it'sit's pretty dirty he pays her

AJ (44:09):
Wilhelm you dirty dog

Pearl (44:11):
No his name is well Harold Noyce And Stefansson
basically just they're there Andnow Harold Noyce and Steffenson
are kind of uh battling overWho's going to take credit for
this rescue Who's going to takecredit for her story I think
Harold Noyce actually publishesA lot of her journal entries and

(44:34):
makes money off of that Ofcourse she received none of it
and social but she is able totake her son and take him to
Seattle for medical treatmentShe lives in Seattle for a while
And then of course during thistime she also gets a really
unfortunate bad rap in the pressbecause the story of course is
really big story but the detailsof the story are that she she is

(44:59):
the villain somehow and shedefinitely was not taking care
of the last man when the otherthree left And he has died of
neglect and loneliness and youknow all these really horrific
spins on the story but then Ithink the F the family of the
man that died which Incidentallyyou know as as awful as he was

(45:20):
to her the family sounds likethe family was really generous
and grateful for him for for hercare of their son And they
basically defended her in thepress and were like this is not
the woman that we know Webelieve her when she says you
know that she took care of ourson and we're eternally grateful
for

AJ (45:37):
Oh wow

Pearl (45:38):
Yeah So that kind of yeah that kind of changes a story for
her just a little bit there is aa picture of her newly rescued
on the ship holding Victoria thecat So I'm also going to post
that picture as well But so youknow the the life story of ADA
blackjack is that she she getsremarried again she has a second
son whose name is Billy her sonher second son's name is Billy

(46:01):
Black Jack Johnson she divorcesher second son's father shortly
afterwards shortly after he wasborn for abuse as well and she
basically spends the rest of herlife in obscurity and poverty
her son Bennett her first bornson dies at the age of 58 he has
medical issues in his entirelife but she's a very doting

(46:22):
mother and just kind of you knowdoes everything she can to take
care of him And then her secondson Billy I believe he was in
world war II He fought in worldwar two And then since returning
he was he's been he was veryactive in native rights for

(46:43):
Alaskan people and justbasically championing the rights
of native And Billy actuallypetitions the Alaska state
legislature to recognize hismother for as the Alaskan
heroine that she is and to kindof resurrect her memory a little
bit because there's been a lotof there when it initially

(47:03):
happened There's a lot ofconflicting information in the
press Like is she amazing or isshe a villain so he wants Alaska
to officially recognize her forthe heroin that she is the
native heroin that she is shedies in may of 1983 at the age
of 84 age of 85 and about amonth later the Alaska

(47:25):
legislature officially honorsand recognized her recognizes
her as a true hero of Alaska alittle late but yeah the the
reason that I wanted to sharethis story is one of this quotes
One of the closest she has isshe actually has a pretty
extensive journal And one of thequotes from the journal was or
this isn't a quote from herjournal but this is a quote from

(47:47):
an article shortly after she wasrescued And someone was asking
her you know how did you surviveall of these months hold these a
years in the Arctic And she saidI would never give up hope while
I'm still And it's just kind ofone of those beautiful human
interest stories where you seesomeone goes through so much
hardship from a very early ageover the entire arc of their

(48:10):
life and just not being willingto relinquish And it it's such a
important thing to rememberbecause I think a lot of times
we we hear stories where there'slike this moment of triumphant
finality in a hero story wherethere's like a happily ever
after you know Um but I think inreal life there aren't happily

(48:31):
ever afters There's just morelife and sometimes there's good
stuff and sometimes there's badstuff And it's just it's just so
important never to give up hopeand just to continue Continue to
keep going and not give up andnot quit because not quit
because you think you know whereyou are and your story and this

(48:52):
is it And you know So that isthe that's the life story of ADA
blackjack

AJ (48:57):
anti-black Well thank you Paul That was great I I
definitely feel like there's alot of the story you know I've
watched a few reality TV showsin my time Willingly or
unwillingly And I can onlyimagine what kind of
interpersonal issues were goingon on Wrangel Island

Pearl (49:19):
Oh yeah

AJ (49:20):
those five people for the year and a half they were
together

Pearl (49:25):
Yeah I think I think it was it pretty rough time I think
it wasn't until the three guysleft and the one man died that
she finally was able to a takecare of herself like a crazy
person but also just kind of youknow I can just stay up late and
make myself a a reindeer coatand then I'm gonna go take
pictures in the afternoon Youknow me and Victoria

AJ (49:48):
I wonder what she thought back on the time That she had

Pearl (49:53):
there

AJ (49:53):
like like was it all just shrouded in difficulty and
measures of despair or wherethey're just like really were
there some really fond knowyears later

Pearl (50:07):
I don't know that it was necessarily an all bad
experience for her And my myguess is based simply on upon
the fact that her her

AJ (50:14):
I mean life usually

Pearl (50:15):
well her son that was born way after the fact held up
this memory is like this mymother the heroin you know just
like look at this crazy amazingthing my mom did but

AJ (50:28):
All right Well that's the pod for today

Pearl (50:30):
We're going to go put our kids to bed and thank you for
listening We appreciate it Weappreciate you Have a good day

AJ (50:37):
Don't forget to

Pearl (50:39):
like share subscribe

AJ (50:40):
And share it with your mom