Native families living on Little Diomede had long paddled less than three miles over to Big Diomede to trade, socialize, and even marry. Cape Prince of Wales was, after all, a much more grueling and hazardous journey of almost twenty-five miles across open water in the opposite direction. The international boundary meant very little and the concept of passports even less. Then, during the summer of 1948, Soviet soldiers imprisoned a party of eighteen Little Diomede residents who had visited the big island to trade as per their long custom. The group was held for fifty-two days and grilled
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