I’m a Colonizer: Reflecting on My Ancestors’ Roles in Stealing Indigenous Land

Decolonization & ReconciliationGenealogy Case StudyCanadian Genealogy
Written By Lauryn Macdonald

My younger sister recently asked me when our immigrant ancestors came to Canada, and specifically where in Europe they came from. She needed the information for an Indigenous studies course assignment reflecting on the notion of being foreigners on Indigenous land. Listing the “who, what, when, and where” was easy enough, but the framing of colonizer ancestors got me thinking.

How many of my ancestors explicitly benefited from stolen Indigenous lands and contributed to Canada’s genocidal history?

Waves of Settlement in My Family

Most of my family lines first appear in Canada between 1890 and 1925, during the first two major waves of post-Confederation migration. While not the earliest settlers, they benefitted from the empire-building schemes of the British Crown, and their lives were made possible by colonization.

On both my maternal and paternal sides, however, there are ancestral lines appearing in Canada as early as the 1700s. They were mainly Scottish and American Loyalist settlers who directly benefited from receiving Crown land grants among some of the earliest colonizer settlements in present-day Ontario. 

The Scottish Loyalists in Glengarry

As I’ve written about in my blog post From Cheesemaking to Child Migration, my father’s paternal line traces to the Glengarry region of Eastern Ontario. This area is traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee, including the Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk). It was settled heavily by displaced Highland Scots and Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution.

My 4th-great-grandfather Hugh McDonald likely arrived in Lancaster Township from Inverness, Scotland, around 1800. There is some evidence to support that he joined the Royal Militia, which if true means it’s safe to assume that at some point he engaged in violence or warfare against the local Indigenous peoples. He may have even explicitly driven them out of their settlements to clear the land for more colonizers. 

Information about his wife, Rachel MacDonell, is sparse, but she was born in Glengarry and almost certainly descended from one of these same colonizing groups. Together, their and their families’ lives helped displace the Mohawk and other Indigenous communities.

Farming Families Near Kingston, Ontario

On my maternal side, my great-grandfather’s maternal ancestors settled in Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) near Kingston, again on Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee land. My 4th-great grandfather, William Keeler, was born to an English father and an American Loyalist mother, while his wife Susan Knapp was born to parents who both fled to the Kingston-area from upstate New York as children with their families.

Although these family lines do not indicate militia service like my father’s side, all of these families settled farm plots, which prior to settlement had sustainably supported Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. European settler colonizers brought capitalist extractionism, and through land development for farming they wrought environmental devastation on local ecosystems. Colonization didn’t always require direct violence—farming alone was a tool of dispossession. 

Colonial Ties Beyond Canada: Jamaica

My family’s colonizing footprint extends beyond North America. My 2nd-great-grandfather was born in Jamaica and immigrated to Toronto in 1913 as a skilled electrician. His father, Robert Clarke, was the son of a Black woman, Ada Clarke, who worked as an indentured laborer in Saint Ann’s Parish. Unfortunately, little is known about Ada.

DNA evidence confirms that Robert’s father was a member of the prominent Lindo family, who were wealthy Sephardic Jewish merchants infamous for their role in the transatlantic slave trade. Family patriarch, my 7th-great-grandfather Alexandre Lindo, is remembered as Jamaica’s most notorious slave trader of the late 18th century as the scale of his trafficking operations was unmatched. There’s no doubt that Lindo’s slave trading business cruelly affected the lives of thousands of Africans during his lifetime, and perpetuated devastating generational impacts that are still felt around the world today.

The majority of the slaves that he trafficked became labourers on white-owned plantations. Similarly to my farming ancestors in Canada, this meant that my white Jamaican ancestors helped to destroy the lands inhabited by the Indigenous Taino people through plantation ownership, which many of Alexandre’s descendants pursued. Although many Taino were killed during earlier waves of Spanish colonization, my ancestors ensured that those who had survived could not return to their ancestral lands, effectively isolating the Taino to mountainous regions. 

Reconciling with My Own Heritage

These ancestors—Scottish soldiers, Loyalist farmers, Jamaican slave traders—are just a few examples of the ways my family profited from colonization. Their actions perpetuated displacement, genocide, and environmental devastation. All of this was done in the name of colonialism, albeit with different personal motivations. We still as Western society put these moments in history on a pedestal, as moments of development, opportunity, and betterment.

But betterment for whom? And at opportunity at what cost?

I believe it’s ignorant for those of European settler descent to believe that just because certain atrocities didn’t occur in their lifetime, that they aren’t guilty of contributing to these systems. Virtually every family tree I’ve worked on of European descent can point to migratory events which contributed to the white capitalist colonial machine, either explicitly through violence like my ancestors Hugh McDonald and Alexandre Lindo, or indirectly like the Keeler and Knapp farming families. Regardless of personal struggles, there is inherent privilege that you receive when these are your ancestral stories. 

A Call to Reflection

If you’re of European descent, it’s important to examine your ancestry through the lens of settler colonialism. Ask yourself:

  • Who and what were lost at the expense of my ancestors’ settlement?

  • How were local Indigenous peoples directly impacted?

  • How do these impacts continue in my community today?

Reconciliation is ongoing, and true decolonization requires decentering ourselves. Understanding the role our ancestors played in colonial systems is just one small step. Take the time to talk with your family members and learn more about your ancestors’ settler colonizer impact in North America. You can learn about which Indigenous groups lived in the areas your ancestors colonized at Native Land Digital’s interactive map.

If your family tree has settler roots, have you thought about who was displaced for them to settle? Start building your family tree to understand which local Indigenous groups were affected by their settlements. 

Rooted Genealogy Resources for European descendants in Canada:

Research Resources and Further Reading:

Lauryn Macdonald
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