Greenland’s Eskimos Retain Dependence on Denmark, but Grow More Self-Reliant

Off on their own, they would be a little giant among nations. But the Eskimos of Greenland cling to mother Denmark the way their isolated hamlets hug the granite-and-ice coastline of this harsh land.

The 44,000 native Greenlanders, who won home rule eight years ago, resent the Danish workers who still take the best jobs on their huge Arctic island. But they need the Danish money that keeps the schools, hospitals and welfare programs going.

“The Inuit (Eskimos) are a very pragmatic people,” said politician-poet Aqqaluk Lynge, a champion of Greenland independence. “If they see the economic possibility to be independent, they would do it.”

But they don’t: Lynge’s pro-independence party won only 15% of the vote in recent elections.

Fishing, Subsidies

Although Greenlanders talk hopefully of economic possibilities, including a continuing search for oil on their east coast, they resign themselves to economic realities: fishing and Danish government subsidies.

The old image of Greenland--remote, forgotten, backward--disappears here in the capital of Nuuk, a town of 12,000 where sleek Mercedes-Benz taxis rove well-paved streets and Inuit teen-agers hang out.

The Danes gathered the Inuit into towns in the 1960s, packing thousands into city-style apartment blocks. It “modernized” their lives but left scars--alcoholism and violence.

Today, empty beer cans litter Nuuk. Each evening, in the 50-degree summer warmth, Inuit gather in small knots to drink the sunlit night away.

Suicide Toll

The drinking often leads to assaults, suicides or drownings. One-quarter of the deaths in Greenland are violent or accidental. The suicide rate--120 per 100,000--is 11 times the U.S. average.

“In school, they have this dream of a modern career. When they end up unemployed or as unskilled workers, they go into this spiral of alcoholism and depression,” said Martha Labansen, government social director.

Greenland, at 844,000 squares miles, would be the world’s 12th-largest country--but also one of the smallest. Its tiny population of 54,000, including the 10,000 Danes, is strung out in 117 coastal towns and villages on the foggy edge of the vast, mile-thick inland icecap.

Isolated Settlements

No roads connect the settlements. Transportation is by slow boat or uncertain helicopter. Sea ice isolates northern Greenland during the long dark winter, when temperatures can plunge to minus-50.

In 1979, the island gained Rigsfellesskab, or home rule, after two centuries as a Danish colony. The Danes retain control of foreign and defense affairs, however, and the home-rule government of Premier Jonathan Motzfeldt, a Lutheran minister, is relying on Copenhagen for about half of this year’s $370-million budget.

The island’s economic shortcomings are formidable. The value of the fish, zinc, lead and sheep it sells to Denmark and the world barely adds up to half of what it must buy. The cost of transporting supplies to outlying settlements is a heavy burden. Housing is short--by some 4,000 units, the government says.

Among the taciturn Greenlanders, politics is understated. But a line is drawn between a government party that blames Denmark for Greenland’s problems, and an opposition that blames the government and its socialist policies.

At a rate of $100 million a year in spending and lending, Motzfeldt’s government is expanding the fishing industry.

Fishing Emphasis

“It’s kind of a must,” said Joergen Sondergaard, director of fisheries. “We’ve got 1,500 young people coming onto the job market each year, and if we’re going to create jobs, there’s only one place to do it, in fishing.”