Greenland's Inuit Emphasize Collective Land Ownership Amid U.S. Interest

Inuit Views on Land Ownership

KAPISILLIT, Greenland, Jan 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump talks about Greenland as a strategic asset that could be bought by Washington, while Denmark asserts its legal sovereignty over the island. For the Inuit people, who have lived here for centuries, no one owns the Arctic land.

Cultural Significance of Land

The concept that ownership is shared collectively is central to the Inuit identity, they say. It has survived 300 years of colonisation and is written into law: People can own houses, but not the land beneath them.

Impact of External Interests

"We can't even buy our own land ourselves, but Trump wants to buy it - that's so strange to us," said Kaaleeraq Ringsted, 74, in Kapisillit, a tiny settlement of wooden houses clinging to the shore of a fjord east of the capital, Nuuk.

Challenges Facing Kapisillit

“Since childhood, I have been used to the idea that you can only rent land. We have always been used to the idea that we collectively own our land.”

'A FREE LIFE IN NATURE'

Ringsted, a former fisherman and hunter who was born in Kapisillit, was speaking at the small church that sits on a cliff above the village, reachable only via a steep wooden staircase, where he is now the village catechist. 

It is deep winter, and the sun rarely climbs above the surrounding mountains. 

The settlement scattered below also boasts a school, a grocery store and a service house where residents can shower and wash clothes. A small emergency room holds basic medical supplies. A job posting for a clinic employee hung on the door.

It is a place of raw beauty and hard logistics. The small pier is the lifeline, where the weekly boat brings supplies from Nuuk and from which fishermen and hunters set out for seal, halibut, cod and reindeer.

"We’ve always had a free life here in nature," said Heidi Lennert Nolso, the village leader. "We can sail and go anywhere without restrictions."

GUARDIANS, NOT OWNERS

Greenland and its people were thrust into the global spotlight last year when Trump revived his demand that the U.S. take control of the island for national security and to access its abundant mineral resources.

Trump has since backed away from threats the U.S. could take the island by force and said he had secured total and permanent U.S. access to Greenland in a deal with NATO, but much of the detail remains unclear.

Locals in the village said they followed the headlines, but it was not something they spoke a lot about.

“People here are interested in the day that is coming. Is there food in the fridge? Fine, then I can sleep a little longer. If there is no food, then I will go out and catch fish or go out and shoot a reindeer,” said Vanilla Mathiassen, a Danish teacher in Kapisillit who has worked in towns and villages across Greenland for 13 years.

Ulrik Blidorf, a lawyer in Nuuk and owner of the firm Inuit Law, said Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, did not have private freehold ownership of land.

“In Greenland, you can’t own the land,” Blidorf said. “It’s been like that ever since our ancestors came here. Today you get a right to use the area where you have your house.”

Nearly 90% of Greenland's 57,000 population are indigenous Inuit, who have inhabited the island continuously for around 1,000 years.

Rakel Kristiansen, from a family of shamanic practitioners, said Inuit people saw themselves as temporary guardians of the land.

"In our understanding, owning land is the wrong question,” she said. “The question should be who is responsible for the land. The land existed before us, and it will exist after us.” 

CLINGING ON TO SURVIVAL

Back in Kapisillit, a cold wind sweeps down from the Greenland ice sheet. Two sea eagles circle above the fjord and seagulls cluster around fishing boats.

Here, the focus is on survival.

But there are fewer hunters and fishermen now, as the pull of education, jobs and services has drawn people away from the settlement in recent decades.

At the school, William, 8, Malerak, 7, and Viola, 7, are the only remaining students, studying beneath a map of Greenland printed in 1954. During recess, they go sledding. All three are moving away soon, and the school may close.

New holiday homes, some with outdoor hot tubs, have been built along the bay for wealthy Nuuk residents. They stand empty and shuttered in winter.

From a nearby cliff, an iceberg-filled fjord is visible. The scenery could draw tourism, but the village lacks even basic infrastructure.

“There's a risk the settlement could die," village leader Nolso said. "People are getting old.”

Kapisillit once had nearly 500 residents at its peak, said Kristiane Josefsen, a lifelong resident. Today it has 37. Josefsen, born in 1959, works with sealskin — washing, processing and scraping it to sell in Nuuk for national costumes.

"Scraping sealskins is very hard on the body," she said.

But though she plans to retire this year, she does not intend to leave.

"I’m staying here. I belong here," she said. "This is my land. Greenland is my land.”  

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Alex Richardson)