stefansson-wrangel-09-32-043r

THE SECOND WINTER AND THE TRAGIC END 289

Wrangel, Island.
June 23d. 1923.

The daid of Mr. Knights death

He died on June 23d⁹

I dont know what tme he die though
Anyway I write the daid. Just to
let Mr Stefanssom know what month he
died and what daid of the month

writen by Mrs. Ada B, Jack.

When it came to the test, the courage of Ada Blackjack
seems to have been of about the same type as Knight’s
own. She had been brought up in a city and, although of
Eskimo blood, she knew little more about the life of a
hunter than might be the case with a French woman.
But she had always worked with her hands and was full
of resource and initiative. When Knight could not tend
the traps she taught herself to do that, learning through
failure how to do better another time. First she caught
foxes and later she shot birds.

Unfortunately, but inevitably, she had the supersti-
tions of her people. She was afraid of the evil spirits
which she supposed were causing Knight’s illness and
which might do her harm. This made her trial more
severe and her credit greater for having stuck it out. But
a more handicapping superstition was her Eskimo fear

⁹ In the diary kept on Wrangel Island we find Ada Blackjack does not men-
tion the death of Lorne Knight but she does say that she moved into another
tent June 22nd. In her statement dictated to Mr. Jordon (see appendix) she
also says that he died on June 22nd. In this letter, however, she puts it as
June 23rd. So far as we can analyze the evidence, the death occurred the
night between the 22nd and the 23rd.