In this article Henrik Karl Nielsen, who represented the Inuit population before the High Court in 1999, describes the extremely important aspect of the case relating to the traditional right of the Inuit population to the lands at Thule, which are essential for hunting in the area.

Henrik Karl Nielsen is one of the authors of the books "Retten til Thuelandet" and "Inughuit Nunaat", which analyse in detail the facts involved in the relocation of the Thule population in 1953.

The settlement of Ummannaq is located in the bottom of the Wolstenholme Fiord, which has traditionally been referred to as the larder of the Thule Distict due to the quantity of marine animals available in the Fiord. Vast lands are found nearby at the large Pituffik Plain. These lands offer rich possibilities for fox hunting, which has traditionally been essential to the trade in the area. This was indeed obvious to the first Danish Polar expedition to the Distict in 1903-1904. In 1906 the leader of the expedition Mr. Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen described how the expedition had ascertained that the local Inuit every summer exchanged merchandise with Scottish whalers.

If you study the foundation by Mr. Knud Rasmussen of the station at Thule in 1910 and the operation of the station in the following years it is easy to see that Knud Rasmussen was not only and Arctic scientist but also a succesful businessman. Thule was founded by private funds and had a considerable surplus first and foremost from the trade with furs from foxes. Mr. Knud Rasmussen financed a number of his subsequent Arctic expeditions by funds from the station at Thule.

In May 1953 the Inuit population of 105 persons at Ummannaq were relocated by the Danish Government. The reasons behind this relocation may be divided into the following phases:

1. Establishment in 1943 of an American meteorologic station.

The United States interests in the Thule area may be traced back to 1943. In 1941 the Danish ambassador in Washington Mr. Henrik Kaufmann had signed a treaty with the United States relating to the defence of Geenland, which had not been occupied by Nazi Germany . The Treaty provided for extensive American military activity in Greenland. Under this agreement a number of military bases were established including those facilities, which are in operation today as civil airports at Kangerlussuaq and Narssarsuaq.

The first information, which we can trace on American presence at Thule date from 1943. Initially the facility was referred to as a meteorologic station. The station, however, grew slowly but steadily. In 1946 an airstrip of a length of 1,5 kilomtres was established. It was at that time considered evident that the local population was entitled to financial compensation for the implications on its hunting rights. The air strip was placed at Pituffik, which is important for the hunting of foxes. The local Hunters' Council received a financial compensation of DKK 200 each year from Danish authorities.

Today it appears dfficult to delimit the meteolologic significance of the station from the military importance of the facilities. In 1947 the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Gustav Rasmussen reported to the Danish ambassador in Washington, Mr. Henrik Kaufmann that the permisson given in 1946 to the American authorities to operate a weather station had been used for purposes beyond the mere meteorologic service.

2. Establishment of Thule Air Base in 1951-1953

The weather station at Pituffik was in a period of transfer into a military base. A study of the events at tht time discloses that the parliamentary procedures in Copenhagen 6000 kilometres soutn of Thule had great difficulties in following the speed of American military authorities at Thule approximately 1300 kilometres from the North Pole. On 27 March 1951 Dansih and American officals initiated the negotiations in Copenhagen relating to a new defense agreement between Denmark and the United States.

It is interesting that there is now clear evidence available that American authorities started the construction of Thule Air Base even before the negotiations in Copenhagen had started and that is long before the Danish Parliament had been notified of - say had approved the 1951 Defence Agreement between Denmark and the United States.

3. Contacts between American soldiers and local Inuit

Today one can imagine the cultural clash between the many thousands of American soldiers, who were speedily stationed at Thule Air Base and the Inuit settlement with just more than one hundred inhabitants.

From the beginning the US authorities at Thule maintained strict control with the American soldiers, who were not allowed to mingle with the local population. A violation of this implied an immediate repatriation to the United States. Despite this prohibition, however, it was the attitude of both Danish and American authorities that the native population at Ummannaq had to be relocated away from Thule. On 3 June 1951 the American vice consule Mr. Donald Lewis in the Greenlandic capital Nuuk/Godthåb notified State Department that Dansih authorites:

"has considered moving the entire Thule-settlement to some more remote location."

The local Hunters' Council at Thule, which executed a home rule at that time, was never heard. Following an American request in 1953 for an extension of the defence area for the posting of anti-aircraft batteries the population was ordered to leave Thule immediately. The hurry was due to the climatic fact that the only local way of transport in the District was by dog sledge, which necessarily had to be carried out a the end of May 1953 when the ice on the fiords was still strong enough for the purpose.

The Inuit had to leave their historic settlement Ummannaq. Families and their belongings were transported away from Thule on dog sledges, and most of the families settled at Qaanaaq approxiamtely 150 kilometres further north.

Hearings of witnesses by the High Court of the Eastern Circuit in October 1997 in Qaanaaq have revealed that the relocation was not only dictated by Danish authorites, but also that the population suffered severely from the relocation. The journey from Thule to Qaanaaq comprised everybody i.e. also sick and old people and implied a temporary location of the families in tents at Qaanaaq, which were not fit for permanent residence in the Arctic climate.

The population has claimed compensation though the association Hingitaq 53 ("Those expelled in 1953"). A full compensation for the sufferings caused to the population by Danish authorites can never be awarded, but the idea of the law suit is to provide the population with a compensation which implies a formal apology as well. This will indeed suit the future relations between Denmark and Greenland. A part of such future relations should necessarily be a transfer of the important lands, which traditionally formed the basis for the hunting and the very existence of Inuit in Thule.

4. The hunting rights at Thule

The population at Thule has traditionally been divided in three groups, i.e. the population in the Northern District including the contemporary settlement of Qaanaaq; the Central District comprising the rich hunting lands at Ummannaq, where Thule Air Base is located today. Finally the Southern District comprises the lands at Savigsivik ad the Melville Bay.

The three Disticts have distinct importance for hunting purposes. One can not understand the animal life of the Thule District without understanding the interrelationship between these three districts.

The Central District, which is presently occupied by the Americal Defence Zone, comprises the lands at Pituffik, where the population has traditionally hunted foxes. The Wolstenholme Fiord is richly equipped with marine animals including seals and whalerus. Saunders Island near Thule Air Base hosts extensive bird colonies.

The significance of the settlement of Ummannaq has, furthermore been due to the fact that the population could use the Central District for hunting expeditions both to the Northern and the Southern Districts.

The Northern District differs from the Central District in several respects. In the Northern District you will find large numbers of whales, whalrus and seals. However, foxes are rare in the Northern District. There is, therefore, no stable basis for trading in the Norther District like the Central District.

The Southern District is located between Pituffik and the Melville Bay and is rich on foxes. Furthermore the Melville bay is normally the place where polar bears are found.

You do not have to be a specialist of biology and zoology to comprehend the damage, which has been caused to the entire Thule District by Thule Air Base. The relocation and the confiscation of the Central District for base purposes in fact destroyed most of the fox hunting in the district and the basis for a sound financial economy. Foxes may, of course, still be hunted in the south. However, the travel distance had become significantly longer, as the starting point was now Qaanaaq in the North.

5. Indigenous peoples and international human rights

The Inuit at Thulle were forced away from their settlement in May 1953. The relocation, thus, was carried out just before the revised Danish Constitutution entered into force on 5 June 1953 and which made Greenland an equal part of the Danish Kingdom.

At that time Denmark had ratified the European Convention on Human Rights. Besides this Denmark had joined organisations such as the United Nations and the European Council, which are based on general principles of human rights law.

The Danish Constitution has recognised the inviolability of private property and the respect for the home since 1849. The legal position of Greenland as a Danish colony before 5 June 1953 is disputed. However, even before 1953 it was the practise that the human rights provisions of the Constitution were applied to Greenland. This can be seen from the reports, which were forwarded by the Danish Government to the United Nations during the period 1947-1954 relating to the situation in Greenland. It is inter alia indicated in these reports that it was the established practise in Greenland that compensation was paid in case of confiscation of property rights.

It has, therefore, been noted with surprise that the Government claims the opposite argument in the case presently pending before the High Court. The Goivernment, thus, disputes that the Inuit may invoke the right to inviolability of the home and protection of property rights deu to the fact that the Danish Constitution before 5 June 1953 did notapply to Greenland.

This may give rise to the question: Can the Government arbitrarily before Danish courts invoke the opposite arguments than those previsously forwarded to the United Nations ?

Before the High Court the Government goes quite far in as much as it disputes the very essence of the Inuit claim in the law suit. The Government claims that Inuit has had no legal right whatsoever to their traditional settlemnt and the natual resources of the area.

These arguments, which have been invoked by the Government, have caused surprise and concern especially in the Thule District. The Inuit have had the right to the lands during generations. Since the colonisation in 1910 this right has been subject to changing commercial conditions, but 1997 is the first case where the existence of the right has been disputed - and it is worth noticeing that it is diputed at the highest level; from the Prime minister's office.

In1996 Denmark ratified ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, which is the only international convention adressing exclusively rights of indigenous peoples. Article 14 of the Convention stipulates that indigenous peoples ahll have the right to recognition of the lands traditionally occupied by them and have a right that their lands are identified and even a right to return to the lands in question. It appears to be in bad harmony with this Convention that the land rights of Inuit at Thule are now disputed.

Cases like Thule have been solved succesfully in other countries such as Norway, Canada, Australia and Chile.

Some years ago an Autralian group of Aboriginals succeded in winning a law suit relating to their historic lands irrespective of the fact that these lands were occupied by recent white settlements. Subsequently the legitimate land rights of the Aboriginals had to be expropriated under the applicable legal procedures. In 2000 the native population of the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia were succesful in a lawsuit before the High Court in London relating to their land rights, which conflicted with a US military base on the island. This implies interesting perspectives for Thule. When the land rights of Inuit are recognised at Thule it is easy to see that something occupies the land. At that time, of course, the American installation must be removed or there must be signed an appropriate agreement in order to provide for a continued use of the lands at Pituffik, which have never legally been expropriated from the population.

Last updated on 22 May 2001