AMNA NAWAZ: After six years of work, the world's biggest island has finally unveiled a draft for its Constitution.

Greenland occupies a vital strategic location in the North Atlantic and gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979.

But the former colonial power still has control of the island's most important affairs.

As special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports, Greenlanders are now seeking greater influence in the world and a future free of Denmark.

MALCOLM BRABANT: In Greenland's coastal settlements, the clamor to break free intensifying; 200 years after Greenland was dragooned into the kingdom of Denmark, is draft Constitution reflects the frustrations of the primarily Inuit people at the top of the world.

AKI-MATILDA HOEGH-DAM, Danish Parliament Member: We are trying to break from the colonial chains.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Aki-Matilda Hoegh-Dam is one of two lawmakers representing Greenland in the Danish Parliament.

AKI-MATILDA HOEGH-DAM: In the end, it has nothing to do with you in Denmark that we are acting this way.

It has everything to do with us wanting to move forward in our lives.

MALCOLM BRABANT: In may, Hoegh-Dam caused outrage by refusing to speak Danish during a parliamentary debate just feet from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

MAN (through translator): Let me once again encourage you to read your speech in Danish.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Why did you do it?

AKI-MATILDA HOEGH-DAM: I did it to demonstrate the inequality of the systems that we have.

So people keep telling me that there is a community, that it's a realm that -- where people are intertwined and interconnected and we have the same language, the same culture.

And everyone knows that's not true.

MALCOLM BRABANT: What sort of backlash have you had from that?

AKI-MATILDA HOEGH-DAM: I have received a lot of backlash for it.

So, people are not used to, especially people from Denmark are not used to anyone speaking other than Danish in the Danish Parliament, so a lot of hate mail, a lot of harassment in general.

MALCOLM BRABANT: With 80 percent of Greenland covered in ice, it's a barometer for climate change.

But, as glaciers retreat because of global warming, the temperature between Greenland and Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, is chilling.

Prime Minister Mute Egede: MUTE EGEDE, Prime Minister of Greenland: As we all live under the same sun, we all live under different conditions, but have all the same goal.

We aim for a future for our children and future generations.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Danish Queen Margrethe's realm includes Greenland, which relies on an annual handout from Denmark of more than $500 million.

But, in the draft Constitution, Greenland envisages complete independence, and there's no mention of keeping the Danish monarch as head of state.

MUTE EGEDE: Everyone is welcome to our beautiful country, if you respect and listen to us.

When the focus is on Greenland and the Arctic, it must be on our terms.

You are welcome to have an opinion, but decisions concerning Greenland and the Arctic must be made by us, the indigenous people and people who have the Arctic as their home.

MALCOLM BRABANT: There are just over 57,000 Greenlanders, making their nation the most sparsely populated in the world.

Greenland has limited self-rule, and there's widespread resentment at being regarded as second-class citizens by the Danes.

For many Greenlanders, divorce can't come quickly enough.

MICHAEL ZILMER-JOHNS, Former Danish Ambassador to NATO: I think this is inevitable.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Veteran diplomat Michael Zilmer-Johns used to be Denmark's ambassador to NATO.

MICHAEL ZILMER-JOHNS: I just hope that we can find a model where it would not be like a hard Brexit, where we could create a new community, a new commonwealth together.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Under the current arrangement, Denmark is responsible for Greenland's defense, foreign affairs and monetary policy, and it's reluctant to cede control.

Are you concerned that, if Greenland does break away, that it may become vulnerable to so called predator states like China and also Russia?

MICHAEL ZILMER-JOHNS: Yes.

And this is why I think it's very important for Greenland, but also for us and for the United States, that we find a model where Greenland will not be just a battlefield for competing big powers, but has us as a guarantor and remain a member of NATO and so on.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The United States has had a strong military presence since 1943, when the Thule Air Base was built in Northwest Greenland.

For decades, anti-Americanism festered in Greenland, not least because indigenous people were forced out of their homes to accommodate Thule.

But attitudes have changed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

ULRIK PRAM GAD, Danish Institute For International Studies: I think the most important effect of the Ukraine war in the first place has been for all of the Greenlandic political spectrum to kind of assure that we are a part of the West.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Ulrik Pram Gad is a Greenland expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

ULRIK PRAM GAD: The U.S. can rest assured that, whatever happens, independence or not, Greenland wants to be a part of NATO.

So, in that sense, there's been a shift of positions in Greenlandic politics.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Russia's volatility means that Greenland's strategic role in U.S. defense is perhaps more important now than during the Cold War.

Catastrophic Russian armored losses in Ukraine resulted in a solitary Second World War tank garnishing the annual victory parade in Moscow.

But Russia's nuclear arsenal remains as strong as ever and in the hands of a leader who is more unpredictable than his Soviet predecessors.

The potential threat from rogue states is why the U.S. has been upgrading missile defense systems at Thule in recent years.

In April, Thule was renamed the Pituffik Space Base in recognition of Greenland's contribution to American and Western security.

DR. REBECCA PINCUS, Director, Polar Institute: Any missile coming in across Eurasian vectors will be passing over the Arctic region.

And so having a network of sensors as far north as possible is vitally important.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Dr. Rebecca Pincus is director of the Polar Institute in Washington and an expert on Arctic geopolitics and security.

DR. REBECCA PINCUS: With the advent of new generations of intercontinental both missiles and platforms, including hypersonics, those far northern locations for early warning are even more important.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Pincus believes that Greenland is now entering a new era in which it can leverage its increased strategic importance to extract more financial support from Western nations anxious to prevent China or Russia from exploiting Greenland's mineral wealth.

DR. REBECCA PINCUS: Too many of the decisions in the past were not adequately made with the involvement of Greenlanders.

They did not have enough agency.

That is changing, and we will never go back to the way things were.

MALCOLM BRABANT: In 2019, President Trump's offer to buy Greenland was ridiculed.

But Ulrik Pram Gad has a suggestion.

ULRIK PRAM GAD: The U.S. could perhaps buy Greenland, in the sense that, if a lot of American investments arose, then, naturally, Greenland would orient itself closer to the U.S. MALCOLM BRABANT: If Greenland does secure full independence, some experts believe that Denmark's importance in the world will diminish.

AKI-MATILDA HOEGH-DAM: Instead of saying Greenland needs Denmark and saying, well, Denmark actually kind of needs Greenland as well, we can say, then let's just create an equal society.

If we look at the systematics of it, that is how the democracy is, instead of just pointing fingers at each other.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Politicians like Hoegh-Dam would like to see independence secured by 2030.

But that target could fall victim to long and difficult divorce negotiations.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant.