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GREENLAND’S INUIT HAVE SPENT DECADES FIGHTING FOR
SELF-DETERMINATION  
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Susan A. Kaplan and Genevieve LeMoine
January 27, 2026
The Conversation
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_ While contemporary Greenland encompasses this range of lifestyles,
Kalaallit are unified in their desire for self-determination.
Greenland’s leaders have delivered this message clearly to the
public and to the White House directly. _

People walk along a street in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, Ina
Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images

 

Amid the discussion between U.S. President Donald Trump and Danish and
European leaders about who should own Greenland, the Inuit who live
there and call it home aren’t getting much attention.

The Kalaallit (Inuit of West Greenland), the Tunumi (Inuit of East
Greenland) and the Inughuit (Inuit of North Greenland) together
represent nearly 90% of the population of Greenland, which totals
about 57,000 people
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across 830,000 square miles (2.1 million square kilometers).

We are Arctic
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anthropologists
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in a museum focused on the Arctic and its people
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a land whose inhabitants call it Kalaallit Nunaat, or land of the
Kalaallit. Known in English as Greenland, it is an Indigenous nation
whose relatively few people have been working for decades to reclaim
their right to self-determination.

 

Arrivals from the west

For nearly 5,000 years, northwestern Greenland – including the area
that is now the U.S. Space Force’s Pituffik Space Base
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formerly known as Thule Air Force Base – was the island’s main
entry point. A succession of Indigenous groups
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Bering Strait region and settled in Siberia, Alaska, Canada and
Greenland.

Approximately 1,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Inuit living in
Greenland today arrived in that area with sophisticated technologies
that allowed them to thrive in a dynamic Arctic environment where
minor mishaps can have serious consequences. They hunted animals using
specialized technologies and tools, including kayaks
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dog-drawn sleds, complex harpoons, and snow goggles made from wood or
bone with slits cut into them. They dressed in highly engineered
garments [[link removed]] made from animal fur that
kept them warm and dry in all conditions.

Their tools and clothing were imbued with symbolic meanings that
reflected their worldview, in which humans and animals are
interdependent. Inughuit families who live in the region today
continue to hunt and fish, while navigating a warming climate.

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Local people fish from a small boat by an iceberg with an ice cave,
near Ilulissat, in 2008. Bryan Alexander, courtesy of the
Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, CC BY-NC-ND
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Arrivals from the east

At Qassiarsuk in south Greenland, around the time Inuit arrived in the
north, Erik the Red established the first Norse farm, Brattahlíð, in
986, and sent word back to Iceland to encourage others to join him, as
described in an online exhibit
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National Museum [[link removed]]. Numerous Norse families followed
and established pastoral farms in the region.

As Inuit expanded southward, they encountered the Norse farmers. Inuit
and Norse traded, but relations were sometimes tense: Inuit oral
histories and Norse sagas
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describe some violent interactions. The two groups maintained
distinctly different approaches to living on the land that rims
Greenland’s massive ice sheet. The Norse were very place-based,
while the Inuit moved seasonally, hunting around islands, bays and
fjords.

As the Little Ice Age
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the 14th century, and temperatures dropped in the Northern Hemisphere,
the Norse were not equipped to adjust to the changing conditions.
Their colonies faltered and by 1500 had disappeared. By contrast, the
mobile Inuit took a more flexible approach and hunted both land and
marine mammals according to their availability. They continued living
in the region without much change to their lifestyle
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A center of activity

In Nuuk, the modern capital of Greenland, an imposing and
controversial statue
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missionary Hans Egede commemorates his arrival in 1721
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to establish a Lutheran mission in a place he called Godthåb.

In 1776, as trade became more important, the Danish government
established the Royal Greenland Trading Department, a trading monopoly
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that administered the communities on the west coast of Greenland as a
closed colony for the next 150 years.

By the 19th century some Kalaallit families
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who lived in Nuuk/Godthåb had formed an educated, urban class of
ministers, educators, artists and writers, although Danish colonists
continued to rule.

Meanwhile, Kalaallit families in small coastal communities continued
to engage in traditional economic and social activities, based on
respect of animals and sharing of resources.

On the more remote east coast and in the far north, colonization took
root more slowly, leaving explorers such as American Robert Peary
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and traders such as Danish-Greenlandic Knud Rasmussen
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free hand to employ and trade with local people.

The U.S. formally recognized
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Denmark’s claim to the island
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in 1916 when the Americans purchased
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Danish West Indies
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which are now the U.S. Virgin Islands. And in 1921, Denmark declared
sovereignty
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over the whole of Greenland, a claim upheld in 1933
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by the Permanent Court of International Justice. But Greenlanders were
not consulted
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about these decisions.

[People gather outdoors carrying red and white flags.]
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People protest President Donald Trump’s desire to own Greenland
outside the U.S. consulate in Nuuk, Greenland, in January 2026. AP
Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
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The world arrives

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A 1944 ad urging U.S. customers to buy shortwave radios touts contact
with the people of Greenland as one benefit. Courtesy of the
Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, CC BY-NC-ND
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World War II brought the outside world to Greenland’s door. With
Denmark under Nazi control, the U.S. took responsibility for
protecting the strategically important island of Greenland and built
military bases on both the east and west coasts
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keep military personnel and Kalaallit apart but were not entirely
successful, and some visiting and trading
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went on. Radios and broadcast news also spread, and Kalaallit began to
gain a sense of the world beyond their borders.

The Cold War brought more changes, including the forced relocation
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of 27 Inughuit families living near the newly constructed U.S. Air
Force base at Thule to Qaanaaq
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where they lived in tents until small wooden homes were built.

In 1953, Denmark revised parts of its constitution
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including changing the status of Greenland from a colony to one of the
nation’s counties, thereby making all Kalaallit residents of
Greenland also full-fledged citizens of Denmark. For the first time,
Kalaallit had elected representatives in the Danish parliament.

Denmark also increased assimilation efforts, promoting the Danish
language and culture at the expense of Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic
language. Among other projects, the Danish authorities sent
Greenlandic children to residential schools
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in Denmark.

In Nuuk in the 1970s, a new generation of young Kalaallit politicians
emerged, eager to protect and promote the use of Kalaallisut and gain
greater control over Greenland’s affairs. The rock band Sumé
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Kalaallisut
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contributed to the political awakening.

 

Sumé, a rock band singing in Kalaallisut, the Greenlandic language,
helped galvanize a political movement for self-determination in the
1970s.

In a 1979 Greenland-wide referendum
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substantial majority of Kalaallit voters opted for what was called
“home rule” within the Danish Kingdom. That meant a parliament of
elected Kalaallit representatives handled internal affairs
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such as education and social welfare, while Denmark retained control
of foreign affairs and mineral rights.

However, the push for full independence from Denmark continued: In
2009, home rule was replaced by a policy of self-government, which
outlines a clear path to independence
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Denmark, based on negotiations following a potential future referendum
vote by Greenlanders. Self-government also allows Greenland to assert
and benefit from control over its mineral resources, but not to manage
foreign affairs.

Today, Nuuk is a busy, vibrant, modern city. Life is quieter in
smaller settlements, where hunting and fishing are still a way of
life. While contemporary Greenland encompasses this range of
lifestyles, Kalaallit are unified
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in their desire for self-determination. Greenland’s leaders have
delivered this message clearly to the public
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and to the White House directly
[[link removed]].[The
Conversation]

_Susan A. Kaplan_
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Professor of Anthropology, Director of Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum
and Arctic Studies Center, __Bowdoin College_
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__Genevieve LeMoine_
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Curator, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center,
__Bowdoin College_
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_This article is republished from __The Conversation_
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the __original article_
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* Inuits
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* Greenland
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* Self-determination
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