Alaska and Chukotka draw closer

With only a few kilometers separating Alaska’s Little Diomede Island from Russia’s Big Diomede Island, one dialect of the Inuit language, Siberian Yup’ik, still thrives in both Alaska and Chukotka.

Now, fueled by a mutual desire for modernization and economic progress, the Christian Science Monitor newspaper reports the Bering Strait communities in Alaska and Chukotka are moving to strengthen ties lost during the Cold War.

• Russian officials are inviting applications from U.S. airlines to provide scheduled service to Chukotka from Nome, Alaska.

• An Anchorage, Alaska, company that organizes tours to Chukotka is using U.S. National Park Service funds to train and employ Chukotka natives to guide visitors through their villages.

• Inupiat and Yupik are pooling traditional knowledge with Chukotkan Inuit to map the denning sites of polar bears.

• An Alaska reindeer-meat processor is teaching Chukotkans to open and operate a similar business on their side of the Bering Strait.