In 1921, Ada Blackjack sailed to the Arctic’s Wrangel Island. She had no idea it would be a life and death struggle to survive. The petite woman was hired as a seamstress for the risky journey. Her travel companions were four men and a female cat, called Vic. Blackjack was born in 1898 in Alaska. She was a Native American Inupiat woman, but raised by white Methodist missionaries. They taught her to cook, clean, sew, and read the bible. They didn’t teach her the hunting and survival skills of her native tribe.