FOR THE LAND OF THE GREEN
Published in the Jan. 31, 2026 issue.
It’s no secret President Donald Trump wants to seize control of Greenland. It’s a seemingly strange obsession, and it’s not a fleeting one for the president – he’s been talking about buying Greenland from Denmark (which the small Arctic Island is a part of) since his first term in office.
In recent weeks, the conversation around Greenland has escalated.
“I don’t want to use force,” Trump said during a recent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that.”
Trump points to the island’s rich mineral resources, including cryolite, which aluminum is derived from, and strategic prowess as his reasons to control the land.
But the US already has influence in Greenland, via military presence since the Cold War. In wanting to own the territory, the president risks the United States’ longstanding alliance with Denmark and an end to NATO.
Read any article about Greenland from Foreign Policy or The Atlantic and they’ll all say the same thing: Trump’s desire to capture Greenland is bizarre and catastrophic to global security.
The problem I see with distilling Trump’s desire to overtake Greenland to an issue of global security is that it centers the voices of the American and Danish governments.
This eliminates the perspective of the Inuit population that has resided in Greenland for thousands of years and ignores colonial history between Greenland and Denmark.
I know because I’ve been there. I wrote my undergraduate thesis about Greenland. I spent countless hours researching Greenland, thinking about Greenland, traveling to the capital, Nuuk, and interviewing the people who call the island home. I became obsessed with the relationship between Greenland and Denmark, and the way a colonial dynamic manifested between the two.
My work focused on the spiral case, named for the enormous spiral shaped IUDs the Danish government mass inserted IUDS into the bodies of thousands of Greenlandic girls and women during the 1960s and ‘70s without their consent or knowledge.
During my time there, I spoke with over thirty people, including women who had been fitted with IUDs and a Danish OBGYN who had been practicing medicine at the time.
My favorite conversations were with Greenlandic young people at Daddy’s, the only pub in Nuuk. What struck me was how similar I felt to them, how they were yearning for a good time, just like I was.
It seemed like everyone I spoke to had a different opinion on the case. Some said the Danish government was only doing what they thought was right. Others pointed to the current population of Greenland as roughly 57,000, and estimated this number could be 300,000 if it wasn’t for this mass sterilization campaign.
Many called it genocide, and advocated for Greenland to be free from Danish rule.
A little background: Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953, and remained in control of its healthcare system until 1992. In many ways, the island still operates as a colony. The Danish government still contributes roughly $511 million to the island. I was struck by the Greenlandic high school system which operates in Danish, rather than Greenlandic. Not everyone in Greenland speaks Danish well enough to attend.
“How can we have educated people if our systems only serve a certain population?” one woman I spoke with implored.
The Greenlandic government is slowly gaining freedom from Denmark. In 1979, Greenland was granted home rule, which included control over its own healthcare system. In 2009, the Greenlandic government gained control over many of its domestic affairs, excluding foreign and security policy. Last March, one woman told me that the pressure from the United States is forcing Denmark to adhere to Greenland’s needs.
In 2024, nearly 150 Inuit women sued the Danish government for violating their human rights.
The case persisted for nearly two years until Dec. 2025, when the Greenlandic women were granted victory in the Danish parliament. In April 2026, an estimated 4,500 women who were forcibly sterilized by the Danish government between 1960 and 1991 will be able to apply for federal financial compensation.
I don’t know what would happen to these women if Trump were to take over Greenland. The majority of the women who were fitted with an IUD refuse to speak with the press; I’m not sure if they would continue to receive the financial compensation they deserve.
Regardless of outcome, Greenlanders will continue to make their voices heard. Earlier this month, thousands of Greenlanders took to the icy streets of Nuuk to protest against Trump, carrying signs with the message: we are not for sale. Greenland should belong to the Greenlanders.
