2008 Alaska Park Science Symposium
October 14, 2008
Ties That Bind: Re-establishing Ties Between Inuit on Both Sides of the Dateline
Colleen Reynolds1, Rose Fosdick2
1Eskimo Heritage Program, Kawerak, Ink., Nome, AK, 99762, USA
2Eskimo Heritage Program, Kawerak, Inc., Nome, AK, 99762, USA
The Diomede Islands are 2.5 miles apart; one island is Russian and one is American; one is already on tomorrow’s calendar. Before the “Cold War” and before the “Ice Curtain” divided the two islands, inhabitants had regular contact with each other, many related by blood and marriage.
The Eskimo Heritage Program (EHP) is documenting the history and relationships between Big Diomede and Little Diomede. Many of the ties between friends and family were broken as a result of WWII. Big Diomede served as a Russian military base and all Native residents of Big Diomede Island and the Russian coastal village of Naukan were relocated to other locations on the mainland of Russia. As a result, communication, historical kinship and cultural ties were broken between family members and friends for many generations. Some of these family members are still alive today and live on both sides of the Bering Strait.
Little Diomede (U.S.A) is 2.5 miles to the East of Big Diomede Island (Russia) and 25 miles West of mainland Alaska. Access to Little Diomede is limited to sea and air travel. Little Diomede Island was named by the Russian explorer Vitus Bering on August 16, 1728 after the martyr St. Diomede who was celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church on that date. Sometime later Alaska was purchased from Russia, in 1867. Little Diomede has been home to a small number of Inuit for centuries. In 1880, the census reported 40 people lived on the island in a village named “Inalik” which means ‘the other one or the one over there’. The 2000 census records 146 residents at Inalik.
EHP has collected interviews from Wales, Little Diomede, Teller, Nome and Anchorage residents in regards to historical information on trade routes, village relationships, art, history, comparison of customs, traditions, and subsistence lifestyles of the past and present. It is said that although both communities were separated by politics and an international dateline, Eskimos from both islands often met their relatives and exchanged small gifts under the cover of fog at the International Dateline.
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