If you look at the demographics of Greenland, half its population is in the capital, Nuuk.
This positions it as comparable to Yellowknife, Whitehorse and Iqaluit (though one could also say it is not entirely unlike Barrow on Alaska's North Slope, less a centre of settler-colonialism and more a hub of regional self-governance.)
But like our beloved territorial capitals and regional centres, NuukSA国际影视传媒檚 demographic mass, its concentration of settler influence and wealth, and its institutional power can overwhelm the smaller communities with their own regional distinctiveness and dialectical uniqueness. It can also drive the direction of political evolution. One can see the potential for not just anti-nuclear sentiment in the Arctic, as discussed in prior columns, but anti-Nuuk sentiment in the more remote Greenland villages.
For Greenland to become independent, its communities may need to become independent of Nuuk and not just Copenhagen. Greenland may, in short, need to emulate the experience from rural Alaska and across the Canadian Arctic, where autonomy is not just a devolution from federal control but territorial control as well. So it may well be Greenland can become freer by joining the United States or Canada than in going its own way. In so doing, it may benefit from the rich and diverse institutional development enjoyed across mainland Arctic North America, from Nunavut to Alaska, from which it may find many paths toward greater autonomy and more meaningful independence.
U.S. President Donald Trump has publicly mocked DenmarkSA国际影视传媒檚 infamous 'Sirius Patrols' that assert the kingdomSA国际影视传媒檚 sovereignty over Greenland (and in particular its remote northeast) with dogsled patrols by Danish soldiers showing the flag for the kingdom. While admittedly symbolic, the patrols convey what may now be perceived as an outdated form of cultural appropriation, usurping a symbol of Inuit traditional culture and historic mobility throughout the Arctic. Moreover, the patrols present a simplified, semi-mythical and almost cartoonish portrait of life under Danish sovereignty, not unlike that we see in Yukon, where the gold-panning miner has become a symbol of an oversimplified, overly glorified Gold Rush history, overlooking the darker and more traumatic consequences of the tectonic collision between non-native prospectors and indigenous Yukoners, with the former coming to dominate the historical narrative for many decades (until more recently yielding to a more collaborative reimagining of Yukon history).
While dogsleds are a vibrant part of Greenlandic history as they are of the shared history across Arctic North America, and a core technology that brought Inuit from Canada to Greenland during the epic Inuit migrations since the last Ice Age, they are in many ways more a symbol of the past than the future. A look at villages across Greenland today shows a proliferation of snow machines and a palpable and dramatic decline in active dog teams (and overall sled dog populations). Moreover, climate change has made the sea ice ever more dangerous and limits the use of dog teams for their primary function of traversing nearshore sea ice to open waters to fish and harvest marine mammals. In a time of melting ice, Greenland becomes more a maritime nation like Iceland or the coastal communities of the high North Atlantic crescent from New England to Scotland, much like the rest of the maritime Arctic.
Thus, the remaining dog teams are less and less akin to the famed and intrepid dog teams of the Iditarod or Yukon Quest, or the storied fur trappers of the Canadian North who routinely made long-distance transits of the vast interior of the Canadian Arctic over rough but stable land, or even the famed Alaska sled dog Togo with a Disney film in his name memorializing his epic 1925 serum run to Nome ferrying desperately needed diphtheria vaccine. GreenlandSA国际影视传媒檚 mountainous interior and glacial ice cap make such epic dogsled quests all but impossible, limiting most dogsled activity to coastal hunting and fishing or tourism activities, as easier to maintain snow machines demonstrate increasingly over time that they are more practical and sustainable.
Extinction is a risk
As the sea ice melts earlier and freezes later, and in the months between freeze-up and break-up becomes less stable, dogsleds become more and more dangerous to use. So Greenlanders, as with most Arctic peoples, use them less and less. The number of sled dogs is down by half, and some observers predict a real risk of their extinction as their use falls even further from favour. The Sirius Patrols are thus, increasingly, something of parody mocking this cultural tragedy taking place in our time as a beloved tradition fades.
If Denmark instead deputized Inuit dogsledders to patrol Greenland on their behalf, as proxies in partnership in a collaborative sovereignty, that would be different. Indeed, the original North-East Greenland Sledge Patrol in World War II comprised 10 Danes, one Norwegian, and four Greenland Inuit, reflecting the demographic reality of life in this remote corner of the Arctic. Defence has long been a realm of the state in Greenland, and is still codified as such by both home rule and by self-rule. It is thus still predominantly the domain of the white man (and woman). Only recently (in 2024) has Denmark begun to train native Greenlanders to join in a more united defence effort with the Danish armed forcesSA国际影视传媒� Arctic Education Program, announced in late 2023, offering Arctic basic training to Greenlandic Inuit to foster increased resiliency and preparedness, and thereby develop GreenlandSA国际影视传媒檚 self-defence capabilities SA国际影视传媒� emulating, to some degree, the successful Canadian Rangers program and the storied Alaska Eskimo Scouts program from WWII. But it may well be SA国际影视传媒渢oo little, too late.SA国际影视传媒�
And it is presumptuous for Denmark to offer Inuit, the masters of resilience, preparedness and endurance in one of EarthSA国际影视传媒檚 most remote and rugged corners lessons on what Inuit themselves embody. Perhaps the Danes should more humbly listen, watch and learn from Greenlanders, much the way Marvin SA国际影视传媒淢uktukSA国际影视传媒� Marston did in wartime Alaska during the Second World War, when he created the Alaska Eskimo Scouts to leverage Inuit marksmanship and traditional knowledge to defend interior Alaska from Japan.
The Sirius Patrols may thus be seen as more of a parody than a genuine reflection of authentic, local self-defence and surveillance, and thus merit some of TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 otherwise unwelcome ridicule. Cultural appropriation has never been a solid foundation for the defence of colonial realms, as the defensive advantage favours locals over external interlopers, as the American revolutionaries realized to their success in 1776, and many revolutionaries since (fighting against American hegemony, ironically) have subsequently emulated to their success (and AmericaSA国际影视传媒檚 humbling) these very same lessons.
This offers us important lessons for this moment, and the opportunity that Trump senses: to bring Greenland into the American constitutional family, as a means of liberating Greenlanders from a colonial experience they overwhelmingly aspire to transcend. Perhaps America can again become a force for revolutionary change and facilitate GreenlandSA国际影视传媒檚 successful decolonization: an experience that may, if done right, be much less about being bought, and much more being freed.
