History
The island was originally inhabited by Yupik Eskimos. During the Cold War all local population was forcibly moved to Chukotka in order to prevent contacts with American Little Diomede island Inupiat inhabitants. Unable to assimilate or live among Russians, they have perished. The First Alaskans Institute says that, "The people of the Diomede and King Islands are Inupiat...".
The first European to reach the islands was the Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev in 1648. The Danish navigator (in Russian service) Vitus Bering re-discovered the Diomede Islands on August 16, 1728, the day on which the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the martyr St. Diomede.
In 1732, the Russian geodesist Mikhail Gvozdev plotted the island's map.
In 1867 during the Alaska Purchase the new border between the nations was drawn between the Big Diomede and Little Diomede islands.
Read more about this topic: Big Diomede
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