Indigenous leaders across the Arctic have delivered a forceful rejection of American claims to Greenland, warning that any US takeover would simply replace one colonial power with another and strip the island's 56,000 residents of their hard-won autonomy.
"There's no such thing as a better colonizer," Sara Olsvig, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council and a former member of both the Greenlandic and Danish parliaments, told CBC News in an interview published this weekend.
Olsvig's comments reflect growing alarm among Inuit communities that they are being treated as "geopolitical chess pieces" as President Donald Trump escalates his campaign to acquire Greenland. The American leader has refused to rule out military force to seize the autonomous Danish territory, citing its strategic importance in the Arctic.
For the Inuit, the current crisis carries echoes of painful history. Laakkuluk Williamson, an Iqaluit resident with Greenlandic heritage, warned that US annexation could reduce Greenland to the status of American Samoa or Puerto Rico—territories whose residents lack full constitutional protections and congressional representation despite being under American sovereignty.
"Greenland's small population could not resist a forced American takeover," Williamson said, expressing fear that Greenlanders would lose both their autonomy and their voice in determining their own future.
To understand today's headlines, we must look at yesterday's decisions. 's Inuit population has spent decades negotiating greater self-governance from , which colonized the island in the 18th century. The Home Rule Act of 1979 and the Self-Government Act of 2009 gradually transferred control over domestic affairs to the Greenlandic government, though retains authority over foreign policy and defense.
