by David Wheelock
January 22, 2026
As someone proud to be a relative of yours I feel an obligation to write to you on a serious subject. Our country, always troubled by the balance between freedom of speech and a tolerance for hate, has slid into the clutches of the latter. A small class of people who desire possession of everything have used their wealth to impoverish and under-educate the people, divide them against one another, rigged or ignored our laws, and now captured the powers of our federal government. Now, the leader of this unprincipled gang has turned his greedy attentions toward other nations, including longtime allies such as you, our Finnish cousins.
Through a rapid acceleration of unjust actions here in North America, which Dad’s family have called home for countless centuries, many U.S. patriots have considered it necessary to concentrate our energies to opposing outrages within our own borders. The events in Minnesota are so alarming to us in New Mexico because we know that what is happening there is likely to arrive on our doorstep if we allow it. Partly because of this emergency, but also because of our nation’s often chauvinistic attitude toward the rest of the world, most people have not adequately stood up for Greenland, or Europe in general.
Let me assure you, the majority of Americans (North and South) resolutely oppose the involuntary takeover of any sovereign nation. We who have indigenous North American blood are especially sensitive to such injustice, yet everyone dear to our family, from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, support Greenland’s right to exist in the way their citizens choose.
Here in New Mexico, our state government continues to be largely controlled by the Democratic party rather than the Republicans, who have fallen under the spell of the gangster in chief. Unlike some “red” states, where dissent has become increasingly hazardous to one’s safety, most of our officials, from the governor down, are fighting to use their constitutional rights of independence from federal domination to provide us some measure of security from the president’s malevolence. Meanwhile our relatives living on our Oneida reservation in Wisconsin must continue to be on guard against the colonial instincts of the federal government. We all desire fair elections later this year and in the next presidential race in 2028, but this will not happen by itself.
The biggest challenges we face are disinformation (i.e. “lies”) and a widespread sense of helplessness born of decades of distractions – what the Romans used to call “bread and circuses”. Painstakingly planned public demonstrations meant to show the power of our dissatisfaction are drawing tens of thousands when what is actually required is millions. Wish us success.
Those with a sense of historic curiosity have been aware of the USA’s centuries-long record of invasion and economic domination of other lands. Yet now the carefully-worded rationalizations have been stripped away in favor of the language of unapologetic empire. We are aware Finnish soldiers are among those who have recently been placed under threat by our government. Yet I speak for the majority of my countrywomen and -men when I express my horror, extend my apologies, acknowledge my shame, and pledge to do what I can to make ours a more just world. Please know that we will not give up our goals of establishing a sane country which will cooperate internationally to achieve a just, thriving, and yes, happy world.
Love, Dave
