The Diomede Islands are a pair of rocky islands located in the
middle of the Bering Strait between mainland Alaska and Siberia. Though the two
islands are only 3.8 km apart and clearly in a single group, they are separated
by the International Date line which also marks the international border
between Russia and the United States. Big Diomede is owned by Russia and Little
Diomede is owned by the USA. Additionally, Big Diomede is 23 hours ahead of
Little Diomede owing to the International Date Line that passes between them,
because of this they are sometimes called Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Isle,
respectively.
Both islands are flat-topped, steep-sided and very isolated by
its location, by rough seas, and by the persistent fog that shrouds the islands
during the warmer months. During the freezing winter, sometimes moving chunks
of ice clog in the open waters forming an ice bridge connecting the two
islands. At such times one can practically walk between the United States and
Russia. Of course, this is only in theory. Crossing the Bering Strait is not
legally permitted. The islands were originally inhabited by Yupik Eskimos as long
as 3,000 years ago. The first European to reach the islands was the Russian
explorer Semyon Dezhnyov in 1648. Eighty years later, it was re-discovered by
the Danish navigator Vitus Bering on August 16, 1728, the day on which the Russian
Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the martyr St. Diomede.
When the United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867,
it included the Little Diomede. The new boundary was drawn between the two
Diomede Islands and the Big Diomede was left to Russia.
While Little Diomede developed into a small community of about
75 individuals, with a church and school, Big Diomede became a Russian military
base. After World War II the native population was driven off the island to
avoid contacts across the border, and any Little Diomede inhabitants who
strayed across the waters too close to Big Diomede where taken captive by the
Russians. Today it has no permanent population but it is the site of a Russian
weather station and a base of Russian Border guard troops
Little Diomede Eskimos live a subsistence lifestyle,
harvesting fish and crab, hunting beluga whales, walrus, seals and polar bears.
Most supplies come from an annual barge delivery from the mainland from stores
like Wal-Mart. A few residents work for the local government or school. There
has been some commercial fishing and mining on the island, but both industries
are in decline.
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