Ada Blackjack’s Home

Ada Blackjack Johnson, nee Deletuk, was from a region of Alaska known as, modern day, the Bering Straits; the Seward Peninsula and surrounding area. 

From the Bering Straits Native Corporation

BSNC shareholder Ada Blackjack Johnson, nee Deletuk, was born in 1898 in Solomon, Alaska. She moved to Nome, Alaska where at the age of 16 she married Jack Blackjack and gave birth to three children. Only one, a son named Bennett, survived past infancy. Jack deserted Ada 40 miles outside of Nome and the young mother and child walked back to town together. When five-year-old Bennett, who was of poor health, was too tired to walk, Ada carried him. Destitute, with no resources to care for herself and Bennett, Ada joined the Wrangel Island Expedition of 1921 as a cook and seamstress, vowing to return to care for her son.