Yesterday, Friday, March 28, President Trump reiterated his plan to “get” Greenland, “one way or another.” Vice President Vance, visiting a US base in Greenland—plans for a bigger, cultural visit with his wife were aborted after negative remarks by Greenlanders—reinforced the boss’s message, telling Denmark, Greenland’s mother country since an 1814 Treaty:
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change.”
I’ve recently written about our country’s expansions in the 1950s, when we made states of Alaska and Hawaii. I was in elementary school then, and remember us joyously welcoming the two new states. I don’t remember ever considering the wishes of indigenous Hawaiians or Alaskans. And I certainly do not remember designs on Greenland as being part of 1950s discussions.
Now, more culturally aware—doggone all those indigenous histories, Latin American histories, histories of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Great Migration; doggone “inclusivity” and “DEI”—background information on Greenland is at our fingertips, our Wikipedia tips:
“Since the 19th century, the United States has considered, and made, several attempts to purchase the island of Greenland from Denmark, as it did with the Danish West Indies in 1917. There were notable internal discussions within the U.S. Federal Government about acquiring Greenland in 1867, 1910, 1946, 1955, 2019, and 2025, and acquisition has been advocated by American secretaries of state William H. Seward and James F. Byrnes, privately by Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and publicly by President Donald Trump, among others. After World War II, the United States secretly offered to buy Greenland; there was public discussion about purchasing the island during Trump’s first term in 2019 and again after Trump’s 2024 reelection, as part of his American expansionism policy…”
Indigenous Americans, and Native peoples around the world from Central America to New Zealand must be saying “here we go again.” They remember their own trails of tears, the diseases, wars, treaties and broken treaties that started with the arrival of Europeans and apparently goes on to this day.
In the last 60 years, but with growing acceleration in the last 30 years, the knowledge of and appreciation for indigenous America has grown manyfold. In the last five years, from the disclosures of atrocities in Canadian boarding schools through revelations of US boarding schools and the publication of Native-written and Native-focused histories and documentary accounts, this Native Knowledge has become ubiquitous in our country.
Importantly, the knowledge among non-Natives about Native history and culture has grown as Natives—American Indians—have become self-aware, focused on retaining and reviving language and culture, and willing to talk about it. Personal story: when I write about Nez Perce language and cultural revival in blog posts, I commonly get replies from a retired history professor in Hawaii with stories of Native Hawaiian revival.
I have no personal knowledge of goings on in Alaska, but can imagine that the same is happening there. I recently watched the movie, “Whale Rider,” a story of indigenous New Zealand, and have followed the New Zealand “All Black” rugby team and their Maori pre-match chants for decades. Indigenous down under is in revival.
In other words, it is a different world for Native Greenlanders now than it was in 1867, 1917 or 1955, when Native Hawaiians and Alaskans were at the mercy of white majority leaders in the rushes towards assimilation and statehood.
Today, an official “Greenland Travel” site says:
“Of Greenland’s estimated total population of 58,000, 88% are Inuit. The balance of the population is mostly Danish. Although these indigenous people are collectively known as Inuit, most of these Greenlanders are broken down in to three sub-groups: Inughuit, Tunumiit, and Kalaallit. Each has their own language or dialect, but for practical reasons most are bilingual, speaking both Danish and Kalaallisut.”
And, moreover:
“While Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenlandic and Danish authorities have publicly asserted Greenland’s right to self-determination and stated that Greenland is ‘not for sale.’ Many Greenlanders support independence, and many Danes see the historical ties with Greenland as an integral part of Danish national identity.”
Can a few thousand Inuit and NATO ally Denmark stand up to the United States, seemingly supported by Russia, which has its own designs on the natural resources and shipping lanes of the Arctic—the prizes that President Trump deems “necessary” to be in US hands, not only for the us, but for the world? Their first protest, against a “cultural visit” by a US vice-president, successfully limited that visit to a remote and isolated US military base.
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Image from “Greenland Travel”
Thank you Rich, for sharing ths vital information. I appreciate you, your words and passion. It was an honor to meet you last spring; I am glad we remain connected.
Manifest destiny, shameless white supremacy, and suicidally stupid unregulated capitalism ride again! It’s as if we have learned nothing from history and instead have plopped the Calvinist leaders of Plymouth Colony in the White House, only now possessing computers, AI, and the awful weapons of modern warfare. The Calvinist leaders of early New England were an unhappy, surly lot. White supremacist, imperialist, and patriarchal to the core, and utterly convinced they were God’s chosen people. They hated and feared indigenous and non-white people, women, Quakers, free thinkers, and Mother Nature herself. They provided the template from which most of corporate America and the Republican party still operate.
This is why the GOP is attacking education and trying to erase all mention of diversity, equity,and inclusion, or the much slandered critical race theory. Critical race theory is simply an honest examination of American history and how white supremacy became inherent in our society and institutions. Education offers us opportunities to recognize and correct the inequities of American society. When I was a kid in the 1960’s there was a great wave of awakening to these kinds of realizations, and lots of us white folks were getting “woke”(another term that has been twisted by the GOP). I became fascinated by Native American culture and spirituality, began reading as much as I could, and eventually started visiting reservations to take part in traditional ceremonies and learn more. I became convinced that Native cultures hold the wisdom and the healing that many in the United States need. Unlike the earlier versions of Manifest Destiny and Calvinist capitalism, our current neo-fascist version will have to deal with global warming, even though it denies it is happening. There simply isn’t time to wait now for a another great wave of awakening in America. Now more than ever we need to learn from the indigenous peoples of the world, rather than continuing the sorry story of exploitation and colonialism.