Danish? Independent? American? Greenland's huge decisions in election

In the frozen north, on the world's largest and least populated island, there's lots at stake. Tuesday brings an election to choose a new government; looming beyond that is an independence vote.

"Greenland's independence is my main focus," says Qupanuk Olsen, a YouTube influencer (and homegrown mining engineer) running as a candidate for the nationalist Naleraq Party.

"But also the fight for our own rights to live a life, based on our own regulation, no longer under Denmark. Any regulation or legislation here in Greenland is first written in Danish by Danish employees within the government. And it should be the opposite."

Greenland's future is at a crossroads, to be decided by its 40,000 voters in the most significant election held here for decades. But today's politics is as much about the past as it is about the future.

"The first thing the parliament has to do is to confirm our sovereign nation, our rights and then moving forward, on our own premises, not what [U.S. President] Donald Trump wants from us," says Pipaluk Lynge, an MP for the Inuit Ataqatigiit Party.

Greenland's parliament has 31 seats, and those elected will have far-reaching decisions to take. As Lynge puts it, "We never asked to be American. We never asked to be Danish. We only want to be Greenlanders."

It wasn't always that way. When Christian missionary Hans Egede landed in the 1720s and established what is now the capital Nuuk, it tied the territory to Denmark and began a sometimes uneasy 300-year colonial relationship. 

Increasingly proud of their heritage, the indigenous Inuit people don't see themselves as Danes. Many now want a different future for Greenlanders – and that could come about from the U.S. president's transactional approach to diplomacy.

"We need Greenland for national security and even international security," Trump told reporters last week. "And I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're gonna get it."

There are Greenlanders – a minority, perhaps, but a section of the electorate – who promote closer ties with the United States. Jorgen Boassen was a bricklayer, but by now is almost a full-time influencer in this election. And he'll tell anyone who listens that Greenland needs a closer relationship with Washington.

"The Trump interest in Greenland is so big, that he has the benefit of that," says Boassen, "and I'm some kind of diplomacy to the Trump haters to try to convince people that Trump is not a bad person. The U.S. is good now, the U.S. is trustable now."

He thinks Trump is good for world peace, and a leader who's trying to avoid war. It's probably too early in Trump's second administration in the White House to make such an assessment convincingly. 

In global terms, Greenlandic politics have rarely matched the imposing majesty of the island's landscape. Underneath the icy soil is a potential bonanza of rare earth minerals, ready to be mined. Whether the potential economic benefits are worth the possible environmental degradation is one huge question. Another is who will be in control of Greenland.