In their words: Greenlanders talk about Trump wanting to own their Arctic island

NUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his claims to it and suggestions that the United States might seize it by force.

Read more: European troops arrive in Greenland as talks with US highlight ‘disagreement’ over island’s future

The island is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark, and the Danish Foreign Minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a “fundamental disagreement” remains with Trump over the island.

The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders, and “people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it fills everything these days. We can’t really understand it,” Nia Nathanielsen, the Greenlandic minister, said at a meeting with lawmakers in the British Parliament this week.

Here’s a look at what Greenlanders are saying:

Trump is ‘undermining’ Greenlandic culture

Trump dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, referring to them as “two dog sleds.”

Read more: Danish official says there is a ‘fundamental disagreement’ with Trump over Greenland

By saying that, Trump “undermines us as a people,” Marie Laursen told the Associated Press.

Laursen said she used to work on a fishing vessel but is now studying law. She reached out to the AP to say she believes past examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and Americans “are often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sledding.”

During World War II, Greenlandic hunters worked on their dog sleds in cooperation with the U.S. Army to detect Nazi German forces on the island, she said.

“The climate and environment in the Arctic is very different from what they (Americans) are probably used to with warships, helicopters and tanks,” Laursen said. “Dog sleds are much more efficient. They can go where no warship or helicopter can go.”

Greenlanders don’t believe Trump’s claims

Trump has repeatedly claimed that Russian and Chinese ships are cruising the seas around Greenland. Many Greenlanders who spoke to the AP rejected the claim.

He watches: Trump says Russia or China will occupy Greenland ‘if we don’t’

“I think he (Trump) should mind his own business,” said Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.

“What will he do to Greenland? He talks about the Russians and the Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and go fishing and I have never seen Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland,” he said.

In the small port of Nuuk, Gerth Josephsen spoke to the AP while hooking a small fish as bait to his lines. “I don’t see them (the ships),” he said, adding that he had not seen “a Russian fishing boat until ten years ago.”

Trump is interested in Greenland’s vital minerals

Maya Martinsen, 21, a convenience store worker, told the Associated Press that she did not believe Trump wanted Greenland to enhance America’s security.

She said: “I know this is not national security. I think it has to do with the oil and minerals that we have that are untouched,” indicating that the Americans were treating her home like a “commercial business.”

She said she thought it was a good thing that US, Greenlandic and Danish officials would meet at the White House on Wednesday, and said she believed “the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side,” despite some Greenlanders’ desire for independence.

Read more: What to know about how NATO operates as Trump threatens to seize Greenland

“It is unnerving that the Americans are not changing their minds,” she said, adding that she welcomed the news that Denmark and its allies would send troops to Greenland because “it is important that the people we work closely with send support.”

Greenlanders receive support from Denmark

Tutta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told the AP that she hoped the United States had received a message from Danish and Greenlandic officials to “stand back.”

She said she did not want to join the United States because in Greenland “there are laws and things and health insurance… We can go to doctors and nurses… We don’t have to pay anything,” adding, “I don’t want the United States to take that away from us.”

He watches: How Denmark views Trump’s threats to seize Greenland

Greenland is at the center of a media storm

In Greenland’s parliament, Juno Berthelsen, an MP from the opposition Nalirak party that is fighting for independence in Greenland’s parliament, told the Associated Press that he has given multiple media interviews every day for the past two weeks.

When asked by the AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance if given the opportunity, Berthelsen said:

“I would say to them, of course, that – as we’ve seen – a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats don’t support having such aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention and invasion. So we’re asking them to go beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and make sure that the people of Greenland are at the center of this conversation.”

“It’s our country,” he said. “Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland.”

Kooyun Ha and Evgeny Maloletka contributed to this report.