The Pseudopod Tackles Colonialism

The Pseudopod Tackles Colonialism

By Cylon2036. we/us

The Insane Clown President declared that he intended to seize the lands of the Autonomous Indigenous People of Greenland. But under an agreement between Denmark and the U.S., signed at the beginning of the Cold War and still binding, the U.S. has Danish permission to position its military assets in Greenland wherever they like, and expand them to the size and capacity that it alone chooses. But Denmark and the United Nations have also recognized the right of Greenlanders to self rule and full independence, regardless of the agreements between NATO members. Greenland belongs to its Indigenous inhabitants.

Greenland’s Indigenous people are the Kalaallit (Greenlandic Inuit), making up about 90% of Greenland’s population of 57,000 people. It has a brutal colonial history of Christian missions, trade monopolies, and the abuse of women and children, but also the gradual and still incomplete moves toward self-determination. Kalaallit society was organized around kinship, seasonal movement, and shared resources rather than centralized political authority, and its culture was well established long before European colonization. The Inuit name for Greenland is Kalaallit Nunaat, which means “Land of the People,” 

The decisive colonial era began in 1721, when Denmark reasserted claims over Greenland. Christianity was imposed, suppressing Indigenous spiritual and other cultural practices. Danish became the language of church, education, and authority, with Denmark establishing a state-controlled trade monopoly. Inuit were integrated into a colonial economy centered on seal products and fish. This restricted economic autonomy tied Inuit survival to colonial structures, and Greenland became a classic extractive and paternalistic colony administered “for the good” of Inuit people, without their political participation or consent.

Denmark governed Greenland under a policy of “protective colonialism”: The Kalaallit people were legally classified as wards of the Danish state. Inuit were discouraged from modern education or political organization with Danes occupying administrative roles and the Inuit excluded from power. This locked the Kalaallit people into a subordinate colonial role, and was followed by the forced infertility of about half of all Kalaallit women, widespread abuse of children, and the suppression of their culture and language.

In 1953, Greenland ceased to be a colony on paper and became a “county” of Denmark, but without self-rule. The Danish language replaced Kalaallisut-Greenlandic in schools. Children were sent to Denmark for education, often losing language and cultural ties. During the “Little Danes” experiment in the early 1950s, Inuit children were removed forcibly from their families to be raised as Danish-speaking. Many never returned home or were alienated from their communities, and it’s now recognized as a state-sanctioned cultural genocide.

From the 1960s onward, Inuit activists began challenging colonial rule more, resulting in the growth of political autonomy. Greenlandic identity was reasserted as Indigenous, not merely “regional Danish”, and In 1979 the Kalaallit Inuit gained control over many domestic affairs. In 2009, their autonomy was expanded to “self rule” with recognition of the Kalaallit as a people under international law and with the right to true independence. The colonial legacy persists in language and culture loss, health disparities, and economic dependency with Denmark.