thumb|Drone photo, 2018
Diomede (; ) is an incorporated island city As of 2020, the population of Diomede is 82.
History
The current location of the city is believed by some archaeologists to have been inhabited for at least 3,000 years. It was originally a spring hunting campsite and the early explorers from the west found the Iñupiat (Inuit) at Diomede had an advanced culture, including elaborate whale hunting ceremonies. Trade occurred with both continents.
1648–1867
The first European to reach the Diomede Islands was Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev, in 1648; the next was Danish-born Russian navigator and explorer Vitus Bering, who re-discovered the islands on August 16, 1728, and named the islands after martyr St. Diomede, who was celebrated in the Russian Orthodox Church on that date.
The United States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, including Little Diomede. A new boundary was drawn between the two Diomede Islands, and the Big Diomede was left to Russia.
1880s–1920s
In the town's census of 1880, 40 residents of the island were recorded. According to naturalist John Muir, who visited the Diomede Islands in the 1880s, natives were eager to trade away everything they had. The village was perched on the steep rocky slope of the mountain, which has sheer drops into deep water. Huts were mostly built of stone with skin roofs.
During the Nome gold rush at the turn of the 20th century, Diomede villagers traveled to Nome along with the gold seekers, even though Nome was not a native village. People from Diomede arrived in umiaks and stayed in Nome for the summer, trading and gathering items before they returned to their isolated village.
1930s-1940s
The first square building on the island was a small Catholic church, which was planned by Father Bellarmine Lafortune in 1935 and built by Father Thomas Cunningham during his residency on the island between 1936 and 1947. It was built from donated lumber from Nome.
According to Arthur Ahkinga, who lived on Little Diomede island at the turn of the 1940s, the Iñupiat on the island made their living by hunting and carving ivory that they traded or sold. They caught fish such as bullheads, tomcods and blue cods. Whaling was still a major practice.
Despite being separated by the new border after the Alaska Purchase in 1867, Big Diomede had been home to families now living on Little Diomede, and the people living on the American side of the border were close relatives to those living on the Russian side. The communities on both islands were separated by politics but connected by family kinships. Despite being officially forbidden, the Inuit from both islands occasionally visited their neighbors, sometimes under the cover of fog, to meet their relatives and exchange small gifts. The local schoolteachers on Little Diomede counted 178 people from Big Diomede and the Siberian mainland who visited the island within six months, between January and July in 1944.
1950s
The school year 1953–1954 on Little Diomede Island was adapted to better serve the local needs. Teaching took place throughout the holidays and also on some weekends in order to complete the 180 days of schooling before the walrus migration started in Spring. The annual walrus hunt was a major source of supplies and income and required the help of all inhabitants. The primary language at the time was Inupiat, and students were also taught English. The only means of communicating with the outside world was by so-called "Bush Phone," provided through the Alaska Communication System station in Nome. Previously non-existent health care was improved with basic medication knowledge provided by seasonal teachers.
A new, larger church building built by Father Thomas Carlin and Brother Ignatius Jakes was completed on March 3, 1979.
1980s
On August 7, 1987, American swimmer Lynne Cox swam between American Little Diomede Island and then Soviet Big Diomede Island. Cox performed the swim as a peace gesture, hoping to help improve American-Soviet relations during the final years of the Cold War. Later that year the Soviet Secretary General Gorbachev travelled to Washington to sign a nuclear weapons treaty with American President Reagan. After the signing ceremony Gorbachev raised his glass and proposed a toast to Lynne Cox, the swimmer. He said, "She proved by her courage how close to each other our peoples live."
1990s
Little Diomede, though a whaling community prior to this, was not included in the formation of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and its needs were not taken into account in determining the bowhead quota for Inupiat and Yupik because of its remote location. In 1992, Little Diomede was formally recognized as a whaling community, per the AEWC.
After the Cold War ended in December 1991, interest in reuniting with families across the Bering Strait grew. In 1994, the people of Little Diomede island collected cash and groceries while local dancers practiced almost every night as the islanders prepared for a visit of more than one hundred friends and relatives from Siberia for which they wanted to be hospitable and generous hosts.
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Diomede first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as the unincorporated Inuit village of Inalit. It returned as "Ignaluk" on the 1890 census. It next appeared on the 1910-40 censuses as "Little Diomede Island." In 1950, it returned as Diomede. It was incorporated as a city in 1970. Diomede also appears on the census as Inalik, designated as an Alaska Native Village Statistical Area (ANVSA).
Racial and ethnic composition
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+Diomede city, Alaska – Racial and ethnic composition<br><small></small>
!Race / Ethnicity <small>(NH = Non-Hispanic)</small>
!Pop 2000
!Pop 2010
!Pop 2020
!% 2000
!% 2010
!% 2020
|-
|White alone (NH)
|9
|5
|style='background: #ffffe6; |2
|6.16%
|4.35%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |2.41%
|-
|Black or African American alone (NH)
|0
|0
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0
|0.00%
|0.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.00%
|-
|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)
|135
|106
|style='background: #ffffe6; |72
|92.47%
|92.17%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |86.75%
|-
|Asian alone (NH)
|0
|0
|style='background: #ffffe6; |1
|0.00%
|0.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.20%
|-
|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)
|0
|0
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0
|0.00%
|0.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.00%
|-
|Other race alone (NH)
|0
|0
|style='background: #ffffe6; |1
|0.00%
|0.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.20%
|-
|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)
|2
|4
|style='background: #ffffe6; |7
|1.37%
|3.48%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |8.43%
|-
|Hispanic or Latino (any race)
|0
|0
|style='background: #ffffe6; |2
|0.00%
|0.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |2.41%
|-
|Total
|146
|115
|style='background: #ffffe6; |83
|100.00%
|100.00%
|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%
|}
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Diomede had a population of 83. The median age was 29.2 years. 39.8% of residents were under the age of 18 and 7.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 150.0 males age 18 and over.
0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 30 households in Diomede, of which 30.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 13.3% were married-couple households, 56.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 13.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 53.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
Water and disposal
Water for winter use is drawn from a mountain spring, then treated and stored in storage tanks. Because the permafrost prevents pipelines from being installed underground, residents must manually carry water from the tank. The closest law enforcement are dispatched from the Alaska State Troopers barracks on the mainland in Nome.
Frozen ground and lack of soil on the rocky island prevents digging graves, so rocks are piled on top of the burial sites instead.
On November 7, 2009, it was announced that one inhabitant was infected with H1N1 swine flu.
Economy
Employment
Employment on the island is mostly limited to the city, post office, and school. There have been a few seasonal jobs, such as mining and construction, but recently these have been in decline. The Diomede people are excellent ivory carvers and the city serves as a wholesale agent for the ivory. The inhabitants also hunt whales during spring from openings in the sea ice. Whaling largely ceased from the middle to late 20th century, before resuming again in 1999.
Taxes
The city levies a 3% sales tax, but there are no property taxes on the island.
Transportation
Historical transportation
When Alaska was still connected to Siberia over 10,000 years ago by the Bering Land Bridge, the Little Diomede was not an island but was a part of Beringia and accessible by foot. However, it is unknown whether humans visited the grounds of the Little Diomede at that time. Most likely, the first visitors came when it had become an island, simply by foot on top of the sea ice. Later, Umiaks were used to visit the neighboring Big Diomede island for whale hunting and fishing, and later, to access mainland Alaska and Siberia. Boats made out of driftwood and whale skin are still used today.
External transport
Mail has been delivered to the island by helicopter since 1982 and is currently delivered weekly (up until 2013, mail was delivered by plane more frequently in winter months when the ice runway allowed for more deliveries). The postal contract is one of the oldest in the nation, the only one that uses helicopters for delivering mail, and with a cost of over $300,000 annually, is the most expensive in Alaska.
An annual delivery of goods and supplies is made by barge during the summer, which usually is the only cargo delivered during the year. When the supplies come, all the men rush down and pull them off and carry them up.
See also
- Indigenous peoples of Siberia
- Yupik peoples
References
External links
- Diomede community page
- Diomede School
- You CAN see Russia from here! – Anderson Cooper 360