Greenland

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Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning "the humans' land"; Danish: Grønland, meaning "Greenland") is a self-governed Danish territory. Though geographically and ethnically an Arctic island nation associated with the continent of North America, politically and historically Greenland is closely tied to Europe.

About 81% of its surface is covered by ice, known as the Greenlandic ice cap, the weight of which has depressed the central land area to form a basin lying more than 300 m [1,000 ft] below the surrounding ocean. Nearly all Greenlanders live along the fjords in the south-west of the main island, which has a milder climate. Most Greenlanders have both Kalaallit (Inuit) and Scandinavian ancestry, and speak Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) as their first language. Greenlandic is spoken by about 50,000 people, which is more than all the other Eskimo-Aleut languages combined. A minority of Danish migrants with no Inuit ancestry speak Danish as their first language. Both languages are official, with the West Greenlandic dialect forming the basis of the official form of Greenlandic.

[edit] Indigenous Struggle

The US Air Force evicted the Inuit of the Thule region from their traditional hunting lands in 1953, when they came to build a base there. They gave them four days to leave the place they and their ancestors had been living for close to 1000 years, promising them new modern homes with electricity that never materialized.

Further, the US Air Force crashed a B52 bomber on January 21, 1968. The bomber was carrying four MK28 nuclear weapons which hit the ice, leaking large amounts of plutonium. Although most of the plutonium was retrieved, natives still tell about resulting deformation in animals.

Since then, they have created a new home for themselves in the town of Qaanaaq, the second most northerly town on the planet, and are fighting in international court to regain their land. They have retained their relationship with the animals, the land, and the weather that play such a defining role in the austere arctic environment, while coming face to face with the modern world in a very short period of time. [1]

In 1953, some Inuit families were forced by Denmark to move from their homes to provide space for extension of the base. For this reason, the base has been a source of frictions between the Danish government and the Greenlandic people. These frictions only grew when on January 21, 1968 there was a nuclear accident – a B-52 Stratofortress carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed near the base, leaking large amounts of plutonium over the ice.

[edit] The Fight for Self-Determination

The colonial status of Greenland was lifted in 1953, when it became an integral part of the Danish kingdom, with representation in the Folketing. Denmark also began a programme of providing medical service and education to the Greenlanders. For this purpose, the population became more and more concentrated to the towns. Since most of the inhabitants were fishers and had a hard time finding work in the towns, these population movements may have contributed to unemployment and other social problems that have been troubling Greenland lately.

As Denmark engaged in the European cooperation later to become the European Union, friction with the former colony grew. Greenlanders felt the European customs union would be harmful to their trade, which was largely carried out with non-European countries such as the United States and Canada. After Denmark, including Greenland, joined the union in 1973 (despite the Greenlanders having voted 70.3% no in the referendum), many inhabitants thought that representation in Copenhagen was not enough, and local parties began pleading for self-government. The Folketing granted this in 1978, the home rule law coming into effect the following year. On February 23, 1982, a 53% majority of Greenland's population voted to leave the European Community, which it did in 1985, the only entity to have done so.[2]

Self-governing Greenland has portrayed itself as an Inuit nation. Danish placenames have been replaced. The center of the Danish civilization on the island, Godthåb, has become Nuuk, the capital of a close-to-sovereign country. In 1985 a Greenlandic flag was established, using the colours of the Danish Dannebrog. However, the movement for complete sovereignty is still weak.

International relations, a field earlier handled by Denmark, are now left largely, but not entirely, to the discretion of the home rule government. After leaving the EU, Greenland has signed a special treaty with the Union, as well as entering several smaller organizations, not least with Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and with the Inuit populations of Canada and Russia. It was also one of the founders of the environmental Arctic Council cooperation in 1996. Renegotiation of the 1951 treaty between Denmark and the United States, with a direct participation of self-governing Greenland, is an issue, and the 1999–2003 Commission on Self-Governance suggested that Greenland should then aim at the Thule Air Base eventually becoming an international surveillance and satellite tracking station, subject to the United Nations.[3]