Diomede is an Iñupiaq village on the west coast of Little Diomede Island, located less than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the International Date Line, 2.4 miles (3.9 km) east of Big Diomede (Russia), about 194 miles (312 km) southwest of Kotzebue, and 27 miles (44 km) northwest of Wales, Alaska. Little Diomede measures nearly 2 miles long and over 1 mile wide, with its axis running roughly north–south. It rises steeply from the water’s edge to a plateau 1,300 feet above sea level. The island has only one landing—a narrow boulder beach on its west side where the mountain slopes more gently toward the sea. Even this landing is often covered by breakers in stormy weather. The village lies on the slope above the landing, with buildings constructed wherever the ground is level enough to support a foundation. The Diomede Islands lie in the middle of the Bering Strait between mainland Alaska to the east and the Siberian Chukchi Peninsula to the west. To the north is the Chukchi Sea; to the south, the Bering Sea. Danish navigator Vitus Bering named the islands for Saint Diomedes of Tarsus when he sighted them in 1728—the day the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates the saint. In 1730, surveyor Mikhail Gvozdev, who explored the Bering Strait, renamed them the ‘Gvozdev Islands.’ The Iñupiaq name for Little Diomede is Iŋaliq, meaning ‘the other one’ or ‘the one over there.’ The islands are geologic exposures of quartz monzonite plutons—igneous intrusions that formed between 112 and 85 million years ago. King Island and Sledge Island, in the Bering Sea off the coast of the Seward Peninsula, are also quartz monzonite plutons. Quartz monzonite is a light-colored, coarse-grained, granitic rock. Because of its appearance, it is often mistaken for granite; however, granite contains more than 20% quartz, whereas quartz monzonite contains only 5–20% quartz and nearly equal proportions of orthoclase and plagioclase feldspars.

Since the close of the glacial epoch, the Bering Strait has been a principal migration route from Asia to America. For millennia, the Diomede Islands served as stepping stones for the Iñupiat, who crossed between continents in small skin boats. Asia’s easternmost point, East Cape, lies about 21 miles (34 km) from Big Diomede, while America’s westernmost point, Cape Prince of Wales, is about 22 miles (35 km) from Little Diomede. On clear days, Siberia and Alaska are mutually visible. The current site of Diomede village may be at least 3,000 years old. Originally a spring hunting ground, it later hosted an advanced culture with elaborate whale-hunting ceremonies, as observed by early Euro-American explorers. Pre-1850 accounts mention three villages—two on Big Diomede, Imaqliq and Kunga, and one on Little Diomede—with people traveling freely among the islands and the mainlands of Siberia and America. Archaeological evidence suggests that before European arrival the Diomede Islands were culturally closer to Asia than America. From the Asian shore, islanders acquired iron, beads, pipes, tobacco and fish nets, among other items, through the Northeast Siberian trade network. When American whalers reached the Bering Strait around 1850, native interactions and resettlement shifted toward the American continent. Migration then followed a west-to-east pattern: people from East Cape, Siberia, settled on Big Diomede; those from Big Diomede mostly moved to Little Diomede; and several families from Little Diomede migrated to the Seward Peninsula. This eastward drift was driven primarily by economic incentives, including American whaling operations and the emerging regional trade capital at Nome, which developed after the 1898 gold rush.

A Lutheran school opened on Little Diomede in 1915, drawing families from Big Diomede and Siberia. In 1924 Soviet officials imposed travel restrictions across the Bering Strait, setting up border posts and banning foreign traders and visitors without special permits. Residents on Big Diomede fled to the American side, and by 1930 both villages were abandoned. Today Big Diomede is uninhabited except for a Cold War-era Russian military post. Little Diomede is now the sole settlement in the Bering Strait, with 82 residents in 2020—down from 115 in 2010 and 146 in 2000. Because the ground is solid rock, the village lacks a water distribution system. Water is drawn from a mountain spring and stored in a steel tank for household use, while diesel generators provide electricity, with fuel delivered by barge each summer. The village endures severe weather, erosion and coastal flooding, but the most significant threat is reduced Bering Sea ice. For generations residents relied on shore-fast winter ice as a landing strip for planes carrying people, medicine and supplies. Hunters also depend on the ice to reach walrus, a subsistence staple. Recent changes in sea ice and weather have curtailed access to walrus and other resources, limiting air travel to helicopters. Moreover, diminished sea ice heightens vulnerability to extreme weather. Late forming sea ice, allow cyclonic and anticyclonic storms to generate damaging swells that batter the village, especially during high tides and fall storm surges. Such events have damaged utilities and power plants, causing outages in homes, the school and the store. A US Army Corps of Engineers survey found advancing erosion threatens the community center, residences, water and fuel tanks, roads, a boatyard, the school, medical clinic, church, storage facilities and sites of cultural and archaeological significance. In 2003 the community installed a gabion rock wall to combat erosion, but it was quickly damaged by a severe fall storm. Read more here and here. Explore more of Diomede and Little Diomede Island here: