They Stole Our Future, Greenlanders Confront Denmark’s Dark Past

Anger over Denmark’s historic treatment of Indigenous Greenlanders is erupting anew, as women subjected to forced sterilization and families trapped in poverty say Copenhagen still controls their lives — and their future.

Amarok Petersen was 27 when she learned why she could not have children. Doctors discovered an intrauterine device implanted without her knowledge when she was just 13 — part of a Danish population-control program that targeted thousands of Greenlandic girls and women for decades.

“I will never have children,” Petersen said. “That choice was taken from me.”

Although Denmark issued a formal apology last year and announced compensation of about $46,000 per victim, many Greenlanders say the damage runs far deeper — and the payments feel like an insult rather than justice.

The revelations have resurfaced as Greenland becomes a strategic flashpoint, with Denmark hosting European military exercises on the island while insisting it is protecting Greenland from outside powers, including renewed US interest under President Trump. For many Inuit residents, Denmark itself remains the central threat.

Petersen says medical abuse did not end with the IUD. Years later, she was informed her fallopian tubes had been removed during surgery — again without her consent. Her family was also scarred by Denmark’s “Little Danes experiment,” which forcibly removed children from Greenlandic families and sent them to Denmark for adoption or institutional care in a bid to assimilate them.

“They wanted us smaller,” she said. “Easier to manage.”

Despite slogans declaring “Greenland is for Greenlanders,” real power still lies in Copenhagen. That imbalance was on display recently in Washington, where Denmark’s foreign minister dominated talks on Greenland’s future while Greenlandic representatives were sidelined.

Most Greenlanders reject becoming American, but many say US interest has exposed an uncomfortable truth: Greenland does not control its own destiny.

“If Denmark really believed Greenland belongs to Greenlanders,” Petersen said, “they would let us decide.”

Daily life reflects that lack of control. In Nuuk, residents like Karen Hammeken Jensen live in aging, government-owned apartment blocks riddled with black mold and poor insulation, with rent swallowing most of their income. Denmark’s subsidies, she says, trap Greenlanders in high costs, low wages and little opportunity.

The imbalance is starkest in fishing — Greenland’s economic backbone. Veteran fisherman Elias Lunge says locals do the dangerous work while Danish firms and corporations reap the profits through overseas processing.

“It’s our fish,” he said. “Why shouldn’t the money stay here?”

The social toll is severe. Greenland has one of the world’s highest suicide rates, alongside widespread addiction and despair — problems many link directly to decades of colonial rule.

“They took our bodies, our resources, our children,” Petersen said. “And then they told us to be grateful.”

For her, independence is not about choosing between Denmark or the US — but about being treated as human.

“They talk about our land,” she said. “They just never talk to us.”

Key Takeaways

• Danish doctors secretly sterilized thousands of Greenlandic girls and women over decades.

• Greenlanders say Denmark still controls politics, housing and the economy despite autonomy claims.

• Calls for independence are growing — not for US annexation, but self-determination.

SOURCE: NEW YORK POST

Anyone who has hung with Grøenlanders in Copenhagen can see how badly they are treated. I had some really good times with them, drinking, dancing.

Ruh roh!!

Welcome to America Greenlanders. Better than being forced to speak Chinese and if you are triggered by impingement on your reproductive rights, you will be glad not to have the 1 child policy.