Indigenous Relations

The presence of Muslims in Canada dates back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when immigrants from the Levant, primarily Lebanon and Syria, began arriving to seek economic opportunity. Many of these early migrants worked as peddlers, shopkeepers, or fur traders. Their occupations brought them into direct and sustained contact with Indigenous peoples, particularly in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Figures such as Peter Baker (Bedouin Ferran) exemplify this early encounter. After arriving in 1910, Baker became a trader who worked closely with Indigenous trappers, learned Cree and Chipewyan, and relied on Indigenous knowledge of survival in northern conditions. His memoir, Memoirs of an Arctic Arab, captures the reciprocity and trust that characterized these exchanges. Later, as one of Canada’s first Muslim politicians in the Northwest Territories, Baker represented largely Indigenous constituencies, further demonstrating the interconnectedness of Muslim and Indigenous lives in this period1.

Other Muslim families, including the Hamdon and Chadi families, established themselves in northern trading communities such as Fort Chipewyan and Lac La Biche. Through commerce, hospitality, and everyday interaction, these families forged bonds with Indigenous neighbors. Oral histories describe shared meals, language learning, and neighborly exchanges that blurred cultural boundaries. These connections were later carried south, as many families relocated to Edmonton, which became known as the “Gate to the North” for its role as a supply and trade hub2.

A turning point in Muslim settlement came with the construction of Al Rashid Mosque in Edmonton in 1938, the first mosque in Canada. Organized largely by women such as Hilwie Hamdon, the mosque symbolized permanence and civic participation. It quickly became a social hub, hosting weddings, educational programs, and interfaith gatherings. The mosque was not an isolated institution but the continuation of trust and reputations built in earlier Muslim–Indigenous trade relationships. Through it, Muslims in Edmonton translated frontier kinship into urban civic life, laying a foundation for later generations3.

During the mid-twentieth century, Muslims continued to live alongside Indigenous communities in towns such as Fort McMurray, Lac La Biche, and Fort Chipewyan. These encounters were marked by cooperation, commerce, and often friendship, though Muslims also occupied an ambiguous position: racialized outsiders subject to prejudice, yet also settlers who benefitted from colonial systems and treaty lands. The result was what scholars call a “dual positionality,” where Muslims could identify with Indigenous experiences of marginalization while also participating in settler expansion4.

In recent decades, Muslim migration has extended into Canada’s Arctic. Communities in Inuvik, Iqaluit, Whitehorse, and Yellowknife established mosques beginning with the Midnight Sun Mosque in 2010. These northern mosques, like the Al Rashid Mosque before them, serve not only as spaces of worship but also as centers of social services, including food banks that directly benefit Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents alike. This continuity echoes earlier patterns of reciprocity in the fur trade, highlighting how Muslims have long sought belonging through cooperation and community support5.

Today, Muslim–Indigenous relations are increasingly framed in terms of solidarity. Scholars and activists argue that while early Muslims often saw themselves as co-colonized peoples, Muslims in Canada are now more firmly positioned within settler-colonial structures. Writers such as Nabila Huq call on Muslims to consciously “return to kinship” with Indigenous peoples, drawing on historical legacies of reciprocity while engaging contemporary struggles such as Indigenous sovereignty and Palestinian–Indigenous solidarity movements. This framing invites Muslims to reimagine themselves not as settlers, but as kin who share responsibilities for justice and reconciliation6.

In sum, the history of Muslims in Alberta and Canada is deeply intertwined with Indigenous peoples. From the fur trade to mosque-building, from rural neighborly bonds to northern mosque projects, Muslims and Indigenous communities have been linked through trade, trust, and adaptation. While Muslims benefitted from settler structures even as they faced racial discrimination, the historical record also shows moments of genuine reciprocity. Remembering these histories today provides Muslims with both a challenge and an opportunity: to honor the past while cultivating new forms of solidarity and belonging alongside Indigenous peoples.