The Stain of Colonization

Greenland has a long and complex history. Just looking at the world map, the giant ice sheet seems remote and isolated from the outside world, but people have been migrating and traversing through the island for thousands of years.

Long ago, civilizations hunted with harpoons, lived in tents and snow homes and developed a deep spiritual relationship to the land. When thinking about a community pre-modernization, it can almost percolate in the imagination cartoonishly, removing the humanness and ingenuity required to survive in harsh conditions. For the Arctic, conditions are worse than what we may imagine in a Native American community—there are barely any trees in Greenland, meaning limited fires.

Because of President Donald Trump’s renewed fascination with annexing the island, Greenland has emerged in American political discourse. Greenland’s long just been the huge, white island near Canada, unknown to many what goes on there or what their political history is.

And no, it’s not America’s first time expressing interest in the island. But Denmark’s been there for a long time. And Danish colonization rings throughout Greenland: Denmark’s flag flying high alongside the Greenlandic flag, half-Inuit half-Danish people are everywhere and Danish military sit along the coast.

Denmark’s colonial presence is clear in Greenland, but their history is troubled, from a residential school experiment to a birth control initiative on Greenlandic women.

Colonization of Greenland is marked by the arrival of Lutheran Minister Hans Egede in 1721. Still, Egede stands atop a small hill, Bible to his chest and overlooks the coast. Even 500 years later, the original colonizer is still ever present.

Denmark-Greenland relations

“It was essentially a classic colonial relationship. You had the establishment of a stratified society with the Danish colonial administrators, being colonial administrators, and [the Danish] trying to co-opt [the Inuit people] into being workers for them,” archaeologist Dr. Genevieve LeMoine said.

As is true of many colonial efforts, conversion to Christianity was a priority. Egede arrived with intentions to reconnect with Norse Vikings, but their settlement had mysteriously died out, leaving only the local Inuit community.

He learned their language and began to convert them to Christianity. The Inuit quickly became both workers and Christians, which caused some conflict between the religious mission and the trade efforts. Even still, after the Denmark-Norway union broke apart in 1814, Denmark kept Greenland after determining the Arctic island would be a profitable endeavor for the kingdom.

Denmark’s resources allowed Greenland to urbanize, become more educated and indulge in new luxuries like tobacco and coffee. Some political autonomy was given to Greenlanders, but slowly. Greenland was a colony under Denmark until 1953, becoming a province. In 1979, it was granted home rule and became self-governing 30 years later. This wasn’t without harsh feelings from the Danes, Dr. Frank Sejersen said.

“The Danes, they looked at them as children, then suddenly, you can see it’s that we [Denmark] are the tutors, and you [Greenlanders] have to be trained because you are not clever enough,” Sejersen said. “There was always this inequality.”

Danish perception of Greenland now

Danish tourist Troels slowly perused his way through the Greenland National Museum, stopping at each exhibit to understand the root of Inuit life on the island. This was his first visit to Greenland.

“People are so nice [here,]” he said. Danes visiting Greenland isn’t out of the ordinary, and the colonial relationship has existed for so long that it would be difficult to imagine any hard feelings against individual Danes.

But Troels said the Danish perception is evolving from a sentiment echoing the historical view of the Inuit community.

“Some years ago, it has been like, look[ing] down upon Greenland. A lot of Greenlandic [people] come to Denmark to live, work, educate, but there’s some problems with abuse, which I think reflects on how some Danish [people think about] Greenland,” he said. “But I think it’s changing, and I think Greenland is rising. I think it is great to see how they stand up for themselves.”

Danish colonization echoes throughout Greenland

From a broad perspective, Greenland exists as it is today because of Denmark’s colonization. They’ve built up their economy, supply imports and provided a social welfare system for things like education and healthcare. If the cold isn’t a dealbreaker, Greenland doesn’t sound so bad.

Just looking at what Denmark provides Greenland, it seems that there are clear benefits to their relationship. But experts like Sejersen and LeMoine both said that Danish colonization has altered Inuit spirituality and culture.

“[Because of] Christianity and colonialism, some things they [the Danes] made obsolete, like some of the hunting skills. If you’re not doing that kind of hunting anymore, you’re not teaching your kids how to do it, and you lose it,” LeMoine said. “When you convert to Christianity, then all the stuff around shamanism also gets lost.”

Oral stories get passed down from generation to generation, she added, and traditional stories are generally well preserved. Storytelling plays a huge role in native cultures, and the Greenlandic language has held strong despite colonization, she said.

LeMoine called an initiative throughout the 1950s and 60s to get young Greenlanders to learn Danish and get a proper education, according to the Danish government, at least. She calls this “Daneificiation.”

It echoes the residential school problem seen in the U.S. and Canada, where native students would be removed from their communities and assimilated them into the dominant culture, making them give up their languages and religions.

In 1951, a failed Danish operation referred to as the “little Danes” experiment took 22 Inuit children from their families and sent them to Copenhagen to learn Danish. The goal was to assimilate them into Danish culture, cut off ties to their heritage and prepare them for leadership roles over Greenland’s political and social structures.

These children lived with Danish families and were forbidden from speaking their native language. After the experiment, many of these children never fully reunited with their families and suffered long-term mental health consequences.

Denmark’s prime minister delivered an in-person apology to six living victims of this experiment in 2020.

The forced birth control scandal

A more well-known scandal is the implantation of intrauterine devices (IUDs) in Greenlandic women from 1966 to 1975.

Often referred to as the “spiral case,” this was an initiative to prevent pregnancy in Greenland under the direction of Danish government and doctors. The goal was to reduce the birth rate in Greenland, ultimately lowering costs for Denmark in funding daycares, schools and health facilities on the island.

Half of the 9,000 women who could have children were implanted with IUDs in the first five years of the program. Some girls were as young as 12. In many cases, some women and children (in their case, the parents) did not consent to the procedure.

Critics have called the scandal a “genocide” of the Greenlandic people and have demanded reparations for the women impacted.

In September 2025, the Danish prime minster issued a face-to-face apology to Greenlanders.

Danish and Greenlandic perspectives on colonial impacts

Svend Jensen, a homeless Inuit man, gave Denmark props for the things Greenland has now, even if the social programs provided by the Danish government haven’t been of use to him.

“It’s kind of 50-50,” he said. “I can be very thankful for what they do for us, the people. Without Denmark, everything wouldn’t be here.”

Troels even admitted that Denmark has vastly impacted Greenland. “I think it’s up to Greenland [if they want to be independent.] I think Denmark’s done a lot of crap.”

He specifically referred to the IUD scandal and the segregated educational system. But he also said that whether or not Greenland should be independent is “complicated” because Denmark is so intertwined with life on the Arctic island.

“I understand that some Greenlandic people are not that fond of Denmark. They give a lot of money to Greenland, supporting their military, health system, education, a lot of people working in the government are from Denmark,” he said. “There’s a lot of ties—a lot of people have moved to Denmark, have families, children with Danish people. We are tied together.”

Despite the long historical ties and the merging of the two cultures, a lot of Greenlandic people yearn for greater independence from Denmark. Independence isn’t a black and white issue for Greenlanders, but it could be the next step away from the colonial relationship.

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into Greenland’s people, history, and culture. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on Edge of the Arctic: Greenland, the Land of the People.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.