An abandoned railway line cuts through deep snow and icy winds rattle empty window frames at an abandoned fish processing plant in the deserted village of Cornock, located on the edge of Greenland's second-largest fjord among chunks of glacial ice.
Once a bustling Arctic fishing village, Cornock is one of dozens of traditional Inuit settlements in the area. Greenland Its inhabitants were forcibly moved by their Danish colonial rulers to apartment buildings in major cities, in what was described in the 1950s and 1970s as a modernization campaign.
Now, for many Greenlanders, these wooden ghost towns stand as a testament to some of the most bitter experiences of colonialism and a reminder of the prevailing goal: to one day secure independence.
“The past is still painful for us, and this is perhaps one of the reasons why there is such a strong hatred towards Denmark,” said Vitus Koyaukitsuk, a former government minister whose father was forcibly displaced from a village in far northern Greenland.
Koyaukitsuk's father and his family were also moved from their village of Umanak in 1953 to establish a major US air base in the area at that time. His father spent years suing Denmark over the loss of his house.
Greenlanders still resent Denmark “because of its arrogance, because of the way it treats people,” Kujaukitsuk said. He said Greenland must now shake off its colonial past and strike out on its own.
It's a conversation that the next US president has brought to the fore Donald Trump's interest In the Arctic region and the aerial visit by his eldest son this month. When the younger Trump spoke of Greenlanders experiencing “racism,” Kujaukitsuk said it resonated with him.
But although Greenlanders overwhelmingly support independence, they are not keen on simply replacing Denmark with independence. we As a solution to the problems that independence would raise for the island, which receives a large share of its budget in the form of a grant from Copenhagen and is not self-reliant in defence.
“That's always the double question. If you're not owned by Denmark, then who are you owned by?” But that's not the way you should look at it,” said Pele Broberg, head of the NALERAC party.
Nalerak, a small opposition party, takes the strongest position on independence. In contrast to Greenland's main political parties, the party believes the island is ready to give up, and has pledged to begin secession negotiations immediately if elected.
Nalerak's independence plan – which would likely involve cutting the government's budget by half to make up for the lost Danish grant – also sees a large role for the United States.
“What I want other parties to do in this election cycle is to go to the United States and say: ‘Look, guys, we need a defense agreement that will be put into place the second we become independent,’” Broberg said.
But the United States' enduring interest in the island – Trump is not the first US president to float the idea of buying Greenland – has left a mark.
When tens of thousands of American troops arrived in northeastern Greenland in the 1950s to build the Pitovik space base, it came as a shock to the remote Umanak village of 300 people. The villagers were then forced to move 150 kilometers north to a harsher climate, where they had to create a new settlement from scratch.
This base, the northernmost military facility in the United States – closed by ice for three-quarters of the year – remains critical for missile warning systems and space surveillance, and embodies Greenland's strategic importance to US security.
Hearing stories of his ancestors' experiences growing up, Koyaukitsuk also campaigned within the government to secure funding to reverse environmental damage caused by about 30 U.S. military installations throughout Greenland during World War II.
But it was Denmark that the politician felt had to pay, and his family holds Denmark, not the United States, responsible for their forced deportation.
“It was the Danes who did it,” Broberg said. He added that the founder of his party grew up in a village that was partially resettled. “He remembers, when he was a child, people and families were separated through these resettlement programmes. It was done for Denmark to save money.”
He said Greenlanders would be happy to see the US presence expand. “If they want to build 30 new bases on our East Coast, be my guest.”
“It is a fact that the United States has our back, as it has for the past 83 years,” said Kujaukitsuk, who served as Greenland's finance minister and foreign minister. “So what's the point of having this anti-American sentiment?”
Nia Nathanielsen, Minister of Justice, Gender and Mineral Resources, said frustration with the experience of Danish rule is a big motivator for Greenlanders' desire for independence, adding that she also found “a grain of truth” in Trump Jr.'s words. About discrimination.
“It's not ancient history,” said Nathanielsen, who comes from a larger political party and believes Greenland needs years of additional work before it becomes independent. “Of course this produces a lot of anger.”
Nathanielsen, whose father was taken from home when he was a child and sent to boarding school in Greenland, said Greenlanders – many of whom live in small, remote communities in the country of just 57,000 people – all know people who have been affected by or been exposed to colonial policies. Directly. Denmark.
Copenhagen, which has ruled Greenland since the 18th century – first as a colony and then granting it increasing degrees of autonomy in 1979 and 2009 – has apologized for certain cases, such as a 1950s “social experiment” in which twenty children were brought in. Inuit moved to Denmark and were cut off from their families in an attempt to reshape their identities.
Another Greenlander spoke of her family's shock when she discovered that the reason a relative was unable to get pregnant was because, as a young woman, she had been provided with a contraceptive package without her understanding or consent.
About 150 Greenlandic women are now suing Denmark over the practice, which is believed to have been introduced by Danish doctors in the 1960s to limit the Greenlandic population and affected about 4,500 women.
But many of these historical mistakes go unacknowledged, as Denmark hates seeing itself as a colonizer, Nathanielsen said.
“It kind of messes with their self-image,” she said. “But if you don't give people a platform and a platform to grieve and be angry and hear acceptance from the person who caused all this anger, we're not going to get through this.”
In Nuuk, Greenland's capital, clusters of dreary concrete apartment buildings line the edges of the city, some set on barren, windswept rocks overlooking the Labrador Sea.
Many Inuit fishing families were moved to these housing estates as part of the Danish modernization drive, which sought to concentrate people in areas with jobs and factories, and provide modern amenities.
As Greenland has gained more autonomy in recent years, some of Cornock's former residents and their descendants have begun returning to set up summer homes, breathing a little life into the abandoned village during the few warmer months of the year.
But many, like the Koyaukitsuks, never returned.
“It was the most painful experience they had ever had in their lives, being denied access to their lands and hunting areas, which they had lost,” he said.
