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=== 1940s === 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 [[Cottidae|bullhead]]s, [[tomcod]]s and [[cod|blue cods]]. Whaling was still a major practice.<ref name="kawerak" /> During the winter, they used fur [[Anorak|parkas]] and skin [[mukluk]]s made out of hunted animals to protect themselves from the cold and wind. Recreational activities included [[Ice skating|skating]], [[Snowshoe#Competition|snowshoeing]], [[handball]], [[Association football|soccer]] and [[Inuit]] dancing. After dark, people spent the rest of the evening telling jokes and stories. In summer time, they traveled with skin boats equipped with outboard motors to [[Siberia]] or [[Wales, Alaska]]. Winter travel was limited to neighboring Big Diomede due to weather conditions. Between July and October, half of the population went to Nome to sell their carvings and skins and trade for supplies.<ref name= "ReferenceA">{{cite book| first=Arthur | last=Ahkinga | title= Alaska Villages 1939–1941| year= | publisher= | isbn= | pages=}}</ref> 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.<ref name="usgennet.org" /> At the beginning of the [[Cold War]] in the late 1940s, Big Diomede became a USSR (Soviet Union) [[military base]], and all its native residents were removed to mainland Russia.<ref name= "usgennet.org" /> When people from Little Diomede went too close to the Russian side or tried to visit their relatives on the neighboring island during World War II, they were arrested. According to one of the survivors, Oscar Ahkinga, after 52 days of internment and interrogation, the Iñupiat were banished and told not to come back.<ref>{{cite book | first= Peter A. | last=Iseman | year= 1988 | title= Lifting the Ice Curtain| publisher=| isbn=| pages=}}</ref>
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