The Nome nugget., 1924-05-03
When Three Left Camp. Knight
 Died Of Hunger.
Though Mans Body Was Wasted by Starvation, Ada Black jack Was Healthy.


 mcn presumably inet oh a dash across 100 mfEe.s oT ice from Wran : gel Ls&1id to Siberss. o! D fourth man | S.iso -diea on fi.a ASiand and Of be- rcic Eskimo woman, Ada Blackjack. ! fifth member of the hsve little par ; ty, who was rescued after two years O. the island by a relief expedition headed by Harold Noioe, advcnurer and Arctic explorer. Recennly. tn a coy room at the Villa Richard. Fort Lee, N. J.. NIT. H'oice told a group of friends far , ,lifreront story. Ada Black jaok. he said. was no, the berotue he first pluincd, she played mean role in a ! grim tragedy she could have averted. { rrrIier stories. m which MT. Noice himself paid tribute 10 the woman's courage and faithfulness. were bas. ed largely on statements made by l her and on parts of crude diary i she kept. Some entries in this roc ord at first thought to be unread able. have recently been dectphered 1 h., Mr. Nofce and his wife. These,
 he explorer said, revealed that Ada refused to aid F. Lorne Knight. ac- ltual leader of the party, as he lay dying on the island and that she probably saved her own life on food Eihat would have saved Knight from starvation.
 Went to Claim Island
 Knight. Allan Crawford of Canada and Milton Galie and Frederick AIaurar, Americans. wont 10 the is II4nd off the north Siberian coast in the spring of 1921, partly 10 claim it for Great Britain for possible use for Ia station on future trans polar air flights and partly to test the theory iof Vilhjalmur Stefansson that mon ccu,d live off game in the Arctdc
 without eia borate supplies ur equip 'mcnt.
 S1Dtt tue tulti lAttu NSS N"iii
 cothing, they took with them Ada
 Black Tck, who was to be seamstress
 ard cook But Mrs Bla ckjack. hose husband. great Eskimo
 hunter, had died, soon revealed she
 had other ideas. She quickly pro-
 posed marriage to Crawford. MT. Nf,io nd lI.n rpnIllCn1
 him. remarked that she had left
 Nome determined 10 marry one of
 the four white mon. Since young
 Crawford was not willing, any of the
 others would do.
 None could see Mrs. Blackjack as
 il mate. however, and from that time her co-operatio ton lessened. She often Ire fused 10 work, Mr Noice said, and
 gave the tittle group ITO end of trou
 ble. Eventually, however. the di
 aries of all in the party spoke less and less of the woman and it was presumed that she was satisfied. l At first there was much game. ps rtfcularly polar bears, but tho isecond winter brought real hard ship. The bears failed to appear, fCod grow more and more scarce. Knight was stricken with scurvy. Despite his illness. however. he and Crawford started a dash toward S- hetria. only to be halted and driven back by bitter weather. short lime Later, knowing all would perish without outside aid, Crawford. Galle and Maurer made another attempt to reach Siberia l They never were heard from and all most certainly perished.
 She Refused to Get Food
 Knight Lay in his tent. almost | wholly dependent on the Eskimo wo- ! man for his food. He appeared for , while to improve, MT. Noice said, for an entry in his diary telas of the woman remarking "the red was com ing back to his cheeks" But otho, ertries told of the woman refusias ] to visit the traps, which were set near the tent. of washing her hair and making beads for herself wh n Knight asked her to search for game.
 Her own diary tells of Knight ask ing her to visit the traps.
 q said notting," she wrote, "bc- cause I had notting to say
 Knights diary ceased March 2l, 923 the last entry being in a firm hand and with no suggestion ot de ath. Beyond this place, however. several pages were torn from the book. The woman had started her tfiwry about two weeks before Knights StOnDtad