Indigenous Communities

The City of Kingston acknowledges that we are on the traditional homeland of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat, and thanks these nations for their care and stewardship over this shared land.

Today, we are committed to working with Indigenous Peoples and all residents to pursue a united path of reconciliation.

Indigenous communities today

The region Kingston now occupies has been home to Indigenous Nations and people since time immemorial. Today, it is home to a growing urban population of over 7,000 residents who identify as First Nations, Inuit or Métis.

In recent years, the City of Kingston has been more purposeful in engaging with Indigenous communities in the region. At its core is the desire to establish respectful relations with Indigenous communities who not only have historical ties to Kingston but who also have strong connections to this region today.

Indigenous history

The history of Indigenous Peoples in the Kingston region is complex and pre-dates how we think of geography in terms of regional, provincial or national boundary lines that exist today.

For over ten millennia, Indigenous people established temporary encampments and semi-permanent villages of various sizes along the river valleys and lake shores of southern Ontario. The occupants of these sites left no written record of their lives. However, their legacy includes the oral histories and traditions passed on to their descendants, and the archaeological traces of their settlements.

In the Kanyen’kéha (Mohawk) language, the name Katarokwi means a place where there is clay or where the limestone is. The Anishinaabemowin (Algonquian language family) term Cataracoui means 'great meeting place' and was translated by the French into Cataraqui, which is often seen around Kingston today. 

Recent history

Late 17th century

By the late 17th century, Haudenosaunee communities had established settlements at both the western and eastern ends of Lake Ontario and at points along the shores of the St. Lawrence River. As French traders, military personnel and settlers made their way west across the region they aligned themselves with other Indigenous peoples, including the Algonquin (an Anishinaabe people) and Huron-Wendat, to establish trading relationships. Meanwhile, the British aligned themselves with the Five Nations (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, who helped to overrun many of the established French, Huron-Wendat and Anishinaabe settlements.

18th century

After the American Revolution, United Empire Loyalists and Mohawk (Haudenosaunee) warriors shared a desire to move peacefully into British Upper Canada territory. The Mississauga (an Anishinaabe people) who had established a community in the region in the early 18th century ceded Katarokwi and the surrounding territory to the British crown in 1783 with the signing of the Crawford Purchase. It was around this time that Sir William Johnson's consort, Molly Brant, a respected Mohawk leader, negotiated the safe passage and land acquisition for her people from the Mohawk Valley to Kingston and across to Deseronto. Molly Brant, sister of the Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant (who established the Six Nations of Brantford), was a resident of Kingston until her passing in 1796 and was buried at St. Paul's Church at Queen and Bagot streets.

The relocated United Empire Loyalists and Mohawks continued to trade with the Iroquois Confederacy and Anishinaabe in and around Katarokwi. Market Square, behind what is now Kingston City Hall, was a trading location where food, tobacco and furs exchanged hands between Indigenous people, the United Empire Loyalists and other recent immigrants to the established British Colony.