The TurtleIsland.social Mastodon instance is Native owned and operated for Native/Indigenous people and true Allies only
TurtleIsland.social is a (Twitter-like) Mastodon instance originally established Dec 2022. User registrations are available through the ‘Create Account’ portal at https://TurtleIsland.social/about.
TurtleIsland.* sites are ad-free, corporate-free, bigotry-free, and culture respectful environments for Native/Indigenous people and their allies to be in community and safe spaces. Join today!
TurtleIsland.social runs on plain vanilla Mastodon, the most stable and widely supported kind. We also use professionally managed hosting. Together, these mean developer level support. TurtleIsland.social may be a small community but we are part of a large block of Mastodon instances that receive very adequate attention. Software updates including important security patches are applied within a few hours of release and seamlessly (no downtime). Our uptime is as good as it gets. Configuration files, media and database storage are backed up daily to a remote secure object storage (again no downtime). Content is enterprise-level safe.
Not all Mastodon instances can make the technical superiority claims that we make. And Bluesky, with its multi-million dollar setup and information technology team, has nothing on us. TurtleIsland.social is equal to or (most likely) better than any enterprise level social media. As a retired IT professional, it is very important to me that TurtleIsland.social runs grief-free and without technical excitement. I like to sleep during sleep hours…
Similar but different
Both TurtleIsland.social and Bluesky are Twitter-type clones. The basic look and operation are very similar.
TurtleIsland.social posts allow up to 500 characters and unlimited live editing though. Bluesky posts allow up to 300 characters and no live editing. In actual use, these two facets make for an improved experience on TurtleIsland.social. 500 characters makes a huge difference in the amount of multi-post messages as well as the content quality of your posts. Editing fixes a lot of typos and stops a lot of reposting for typos or updates.
Better, more accurate posts equals more engagement and less misunderstanding.
On the other hand, an organization that needs to post content on both platforms will find it easy to cut and paste content from Bluesky to TurtleIsland.social. The reverse however, may not fit into Bluesky without breaking your post into two posts.
Media mode is great for artists
The media tab on Bluesky filters out posts with no media, that’s it. On TurtleIsland.social, the media tab also filters out posts with no media, but additionally goes into an Instagram-like grid mode (see header image above), which is very cool. I even have a 2nd TurtleIsland.social account geared just for media mode to replace Instagram.
Happy days… this is a real strong point for artists, photographers or anyone that wants a portfolio of their work. My hope is that Mastodon continues to improve media mode, which is already great.
As a side note, the Fediverse Instagram clone which shall remain nameless, pretty much sucks, especially from an independent server perspective, so I was very glad to discover this.
Direct Messages
In my opinion Mastodon Private Mentions (Chat) kind of suck. On Bluesky, Chat is a separate function, pretty easy and clear. On Mastodon, Private Mentions are part of the regular post function with a private flag that is easy to forget and accidentally produce a public post (eek!). Personally, I would suggest Signal over either private message function anyways, but for small communications on Mastodon, just be careful. It usually takes one kablooey to learn your lesson, ha!
Federation differences
As I mentioned in Part 1, TurtleIsland.social is part of a federation of ‘over 8000 Mastodon instances. Billionaire corporate independence is a reality today’. There is a rich variety of privately owned Mastodon instances of all types of communities that TurtleIsland.social is federated with today. Not only is Mastodon federation mature and problem free, but the cost of entry is relatively low and within reach of small groups, thus enabling unique communities like TurtleIsland.social to exist and thrive.
Technically, Bluesky is federated (to a proprietary standard), but the feature is unimplemented. The design is such that cost of entry is high, requiring expensive servers, centralized connection/resources, and major technical expertise.
Bluesky is centralized and susceptible to billionaire takeover
Regardless of the Bluesky ‘billionaire-proof’ lie, it is very susceptible to being forced by the fascist Trump administration to be MAGA friendly. Bluesky is also a prime candidate for a billionaire buyout. In fact, the more successful Bluesky is, the more likely it is that it will be bought out and/or forced to be MAGA friendly.
I hate to say it but it is sad to see people joyfully breaking free from Elon Musk and his X disaster, or Meta and their nonsense, to only be setting themselves up as prime targets for another digital refugee situation.
Again, fortunately, TurtleIsland.social servers are in France. Mastodon servers are privately owned, there are far too many of them to centrally control. Even if the Mastodon flagship sold its soul (which is very unlikely) the Fediverse network itself is an embraced standard (unlike the proprietary Bluesky standard) and the open source servers (with low cost of entry) would continue on. And of course, Mastodon has account portability, so you can move your account to any one of the more than 8000+ instances.
Thanks! -Yehuda
This link will become live when Part 3 (The best parts, culture and security!) is released shortly: A Native perspective: TurtleIsland.social vs. Bluesky Part 3
This post is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Mastodon – TurtleIsland.social/@Yehuda.
Both have pros and cons, let’s start with background
For background, most people reading this understand that X (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Instagram and Facebook) are owned by slimeball MAGA billionaires and are very disrespectful to BIPOC and left of center people. I’m not going to expound on that.
That said, for many it is difficult to disengage from X and Meta for a variety of reasons. Primarily BIPOC communities, institutions and brands. Institutions ranging from government to brands to entertainment stars, etc. are deeply embedded in commercial social media.
For me, Facebook is hard to ditch. As an off the rez urban Native, it is a primary information connection to my Native Nation and its resources, and other important Indian country tribal information. Many Native people, especially creatives are deeply connected to Instagram. X as disgusting as it is, is still the go to place for at this moment news and official government information etc.
BIPOC communities can be significant on all those platforms. Many Native people and organizations have thousands and thousands of followers. In most cases, those followers are not just numbers but real important community members. There are many personal and business relationships that you just don’t throw away without pain, or even total destruction.
TurtleIsland.social is born
In my mind, October 27, 2022 was the seminal moment, when Elon Musk bought Twitter. Within a week or so, in November of 2022, my favorite relative Tzipporah and I joined a Mastodon instance. Within a month, we decided to operate our own instance and on December 5, 2022, what was to become TurtleIsland.social was alive. A short stint as Mvskoke.social was too narrowly focused we decided. We switched to Woodpecker.social which was great, but even though woodpeckers were important medicine birds to us, it didn’t ring out as a Native Indigenous instance to others, so on July 19, 2023 the final configuration of TurtleIsland.social opened. This has been super, and won’t change.
On September 10, 2023, TurtleIsland.social moved to managed hosting, a huge step forward in reliability, performance and expandability. This also freed up a lot of my time allowing me to concentrate more on building community instead of system administration. The upshot was now we had the best possible Mastodon instance. We were ready for high demand or celebrity users. The sky was the limit for Native owned and operated social media.
The most important facts here: TurtleIsland.social is a Native owned and operated Mastodon instance. Beyond that, there are already over 8000 Mastodon instances. Billionaire corporate independence is a reality today.
Bluesky is born
There has been a lot written about this that I won’t duplicate, but Bluesky opened registrations to the general public on February 6, 2024, a year after its release as an invite-required beta. I think everyone knows that Bluesky came from the belly of Twitter, and is a traditional billionaire owned tech company. All the typical billionaire social media risks apply to Bluesky. In standard corporate baloney fashion, Bluesky touts itself as “billionaire-proof”, but real hurdles to this imaginary freedom exist. Especially for BIPOC people, the cost for entry is too high. It is not realistic to fork off from Bluesky. But for now, Bluesky is left of center leaning and friendly to BIPOC people.
The most important facts here: Bluesky is a centralized platform, meaning it is owned and operated by a single billionaire drenched entity. The imagined “billionaire-proof” freedom Bluesky touts is a pipe dream.
TurtleIsland.social and Bluesky provide new ways forward
At this point in time, I consider both TurtleIsland.social and Bluesky to be essential for Native/Indigenous social media experiences. Ordinarily I try to think forward 7 generations, but I don’t think any specific social media will last that long. However I do think it is worthwhile to consider what will happen over the next 10 or 20 years. Seriously, today there is a lot of pressure on social media and all forms of news and information to succumb not only to billionaire whims, but to a quickly degrading fascist US government as well.
This post is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Mastodon – TurtleIsland.social/@Yehuda.
Native people are angry and with damn good reasons
Native people have been practically exterminated in North America. The killing and oppression have not stopped. It may be under-reported in mainstream (white culture) media, but Native people see non-stop deaths. Our women and children are raped, dismembered and more. Our coffins are garbage bags. Our graves are garbage dumps. All this is a continuum that stretches from invasion to today.
But yeah, let’s talk about your white fragility. Or its evil sibling, fragility of the assimilated. Or dominant religion fragility. Or liberal politics fragility. Or numerous other facets of the dominant white-drenched culture of North America. Geez, give me a break…
All social media is filled with racism and bigotry
It’s not just Nazis and conservatives either. There is plenty of racism and bigotry in the liberal quarters. Even in the far left or the authoritarian left. It’s been pretty amusing and so rich watching the dominant culture of all stripes squirm and shudder, finally feeling a fraction of what BIPOC and other marginalized people have always known and felt from day one, as the fascist Trump administration puts them too in its sights.
And by the way – no, TurtleIsland.social doesn’t hate white or non-Native people. We celebrate diverse cultures. We don’t try to homogenize them. TurtleIsland.social has some amazing allies who join Native people in equality and don’t need to dominate and oppress. Of course Native culture is a bit more expressive, more sexually liberated, more foul mouthed, less colonizer religious, and understandably more pissed off than the dominant culture. Any true ally gets it, and gets it without fragility tizzies.
The case for Native ownership and moderation
All the above demands Native social media ownership and moderation as the only solution. There is no non-Native social media that can respect us. Or protect us and our Native values. Even our very lives. Not on Mastodon (Fediverse), not on Bluesky, and certainly not on Xitter or Meta social media. Native people need to control our own digital land and destiny.
TurtleIsland.social doesn’t get a lot of moderation reports, but when we do most of them are anti-Native and follow a similar path. No broken rules referenced, just ‘Other’. No description of the complaint, just check-marking Native posts or replies. Most likely because if you put a description to the racism, bigotry or fragility, it would sound incredibly stupid and wrong as it actually is. The moderation reports are just yet another racism, bigotry or fragility weapon. There are no valid justifications. Just dominant culture shitasses being shitasses.
The dominant culture needs to stop being so sensitive. They need to open their eyes and flush their own toilet. Stop killing and oppressing Native people. And yes, even on social media.
Native people are done with keeping our mouths shut and our culture hidden or legislated away.
Indigenous Critical Reflections On Traditional Ecological Knowledge – Edited by Lara A. Jacobs
I read a lot, pretty much day and night, but mostly social media and short to medium length news or information articles. I don’t read many full length books these days. I just don’t have the brain bandwidth considering how much else I read. So, when I do buy and read a book, you can believe it is special.
Indigenous Critical Reflections On Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is one such book. This book is definitely my top 2025 choice.
Lara A. Jacobs is a citizen of Muscogee (Creek) Nation with Choctaw heritage. She is a complex systems scientist who focuses her research on Indigenous value systems, TEK, the ecological and pathogenic impacts of outdoor recreation activities on Tribal treaty lands, co-equity-based management and #LANDBACK paradigms.
Contributors: Melinda M. Adams Joe Anderson Coral Avery Andrew Kalani Carlson Kathryn Champagne Brandie Makeba Cross Joanna M. DeMeyer Jonathan James Fisk Pat Gonzales-Rogers Celina Gray Rhode Grayson Zena Greenawald Jennifer Grenz Joy Harjo Mandi Harris Jessica Hernandez Victor Hernandez
David Iniguez Michelle M. Jacob Lara A. Jacobs Lydia L. Jennings Eileen Jimenez Stephanie Kelley David G. Lewis Tomás A. Madrigal Tara McAllister Lauren Wendelle Yowelunh McLester-Davis Angeles Mendoza Kat Milligan-McClellan Todd A. Mitchell swalítub Don Motanic ‘Alohi Nakachi Kaikea Nakachi Kobe Natachu
Ululani Kekahiliokalani Brigitte Russo Oana Jennifer R. O’Neal Lily Painter Britt Postoak Leasi Vanessa Lee Raymond Anamag Margaret H. C. Rudolf Oral Saulters Sam Schimmel Paulette Steeves Joni Tobacco Angelo Villagomez Vivi Vold Margaret Palaghicon Von Rotz Luhui Whitebear Joseph Gazing Wolf Monique Wynecoop Cherry YEW Yamane
Lara is also the author of Settler Colonialism Introduction which she graciously allowed us to copy to this site and is a huge hit on TurtleIsland.social. The Settler Colonialism Introduction post at TurtleIsland.social has moved a couple times, so the boost/favorite totals are incomplete, but there have been hundreds and hundreds of boosts (reposts) and favorites (likes). Many people have found Lara’s slides on this important subject to be tremendously helpful and educational.
Anyhoo, I totally recommend you grab a copy of Indigenous Critical Reflections On Traditional Ecological Knowledge. You will be glad you did.
Sunday, September 10, 2023 – TurtleIsland.social moved to professional Mastodon instance hosting, including a complete migration of all the users and content too. So now we can scale to thousands and thousands of users, handle unlimited celebrities or other high impact users. And no more install/upgrade/backup headaches/anxieties for me. I can totally concentrate on the community now.
This will also increase our uptime. No more hour long Wednesday snapshots. All configuration files, media and database storage are backed up daily to a remote secure object storage. In the extremely unlikely event of a system corruption, Turtle Island can be restored fresh in about an hour tops.
Ditto with system upgrades, due to the more surgical nature of the backups, upgrades will be a mere blip and not even noticeable.
New Native-American beadwork online store now open
Tzipporah Rothschild-Manory, Muscogee Nation citizen, today announced with great excitement that Cvkvlv.com Beadwork is now ready and open for business.
In celebration, their first collection of unique handmade Native-American beadwork is now available for purchase. As of this posting, there are 12 individual sets of earrings in stock and ready to ship!
