Americans do not feel that they are settler colonists

October 23, 2024

Narratives around settlement and colonization are acquiring greater importance in the academy and civil society in North America. Reminders of the important place of Indigenous peoples in North America have seen a sharp rise in land acknowledgements across the continent (more so in Canada than in the United States). There has also been more frequent reference to Indigenous and settler colonist descriptive to characterize the ‘two peoples’ of North America. The indigenous-settler binary is however a form of labeling that appears to be widely rejected by North Americans as revealed in a survey in the United States asking whether Americans agree that they are settler colonists. The survey was conducted by the firm Leger Marketing for the Metropolis Institute over the period September 27-29, 2024 with a sample of 1006 Americans. A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey for comparison purposes. A probability sample of 1612 respondents would have a margin of error of ±3.5%, 19 times out of 20.