bsky.app login screen at the top right showing account creation changed to turtleis.land
Our Bluesky Personal Data Server joins our Mastodon server for a more complete Native/Indigenous social media experience
The Bluesky Native community is much larger than it is on Mastodon, so we are happy to offer this option to any North American Native/Indigenous person and true allies. To join TurtleIs.land, you will need an invite code.
TurtleIsland.social and TurtleIs.land are complementary to each other. Neither one replaces the other and both should be around for some time to come. Our TurtleIs.land PDS is self-hosted at the same place our web server is. Maybe some day there will be managed hosting options available but for now this relatively new technology is running very well. Bluesky is committed to its PDS software. My basic impression is the software is very professionally written and well cared for. It should also be noted TurtleIs.land is very resource scalable and has virtually unlimited high-speed CDN image storage.
Turtle Island 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!
#LandBack #DigitalBack
Mvto! -Yehuda
This post is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Bluesky @Yehuda.TurtleIs.land or Mastodon TurtleIsland.social/@Yehuda. Mvto!
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!
#LandBack #DigitalBack
Mvto! -Yehuda
This post is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Bluesky @Yehuda.TurtleIs.land or Mastodon TurtleIsland.social/@Yehuda. Mvto!
Every Native/Indigenous person and true ally understands #LandBack, the most critical component of decolonization. #DigitalBack is the same thing in the digital world.
Decolonization scholars Tuck and Yang wrote in Decolonization is not a metaphor that ‘Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life’. Today, we can easily see that the virtual version of land and life in the digital world includes social media. That the digital world including social media is critically important to modern day Native people in many many ways doesn’t need explanation.
All the North American Native people that I know yearn for Native nation full non-custodial sovereignty and the repatriation of formerly Native lands back to the Native people. These yearnings are more easily expressed than achieved of course, but we are moving in that direction. It is clear what needs to happen.
Elon Musk acquired Twitter on October 27, 2022
When Elon Musk acquired Twitter, it was clear to me and most people that Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Twitter were not only dominant social media forces and colonial as hell, but owned by evil white billionaires.
I foresaw the degradation of the Native community on Twitter. Like many, I sought out alternatives to immigrate to. Among other alternatives, I found Mastodon. And most interestingly, I found a Native owned and operated Mastodon server. My collaborator Tzipporah and I joined it in the very beginning of November 2022.
I asked myself why wouldn’t we want full non-custodial sovereignty of the Native digital world for ourselves and other Native people? In other words, why wouldn’t we want a digital version of #LandBack?
The light bulb went on
The answer to the above question, was yes of course, we want a digital version of #LandBack. We want full non-custodial sovereignty of the Native digital world for ourselves and other Native people. We want data and moderation sovereignty. And so Tzipporah and I started our own Native Mastodon instance December 5, 2022.
Naturally starting a conventionally centralized Native owned social media community of any consequence was beyond my desires, talents, energies and resources. However, running Mastodon on a Linux virtual server was right up my skills alley and within my limited pocketbook. I imagined we could be one of many Native Mastodon (or other decentralized ActivityPub protocol) servers that could evolve into a large thriving Native community, that no evil white billionaire could take away from us. Decentralized social media could kickstart #DigitalBack.
Spring forward to 2025
What became the TurtleIsland.social Mastodon instance is small but healthy. The non-Native Mastodon/ActivityPub community as a whole has been supportive, financially and otherwise. We’ve been able to moderate to Native standards. #DigitalBack life is good. There are many benefits to Native ownership and moderation over even decentralized white ownership and moderation. I am forever sold on #DigitalBack.
Since 2022, another decentralized social media protocol (Bluesky AT protocol) has evolved successfully. Tzipporah and I decided both Mastodon and Bluesky were valuable, and in April 2025 we added TurtleIs.land, a Bluesky PDS to Turtle Island.
Today, in 2025, all Native/Indigenous people, groups and organizations have decolonized social media options available to them.
There is no way to sugar coat this, let’s get serious
Here is hard part to chew, number one. As I mentioned above, in 2022, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Twitter (which became X.com) were not only dominant social media forces and colonial as hell, but owned by evil white billionaires. Further, I would posit, that in 2025, to be a Native/Indigenous user on those platforms, at the very least approaches a moral failing. And especially the Twitter platform, now X.com, which is a right-wing cesspool. X.com is unquestionably a Nazi bar. Under Elon Musk it has become the defacto Fascist Nazi social media hangout. Every part of it is polluted and poisonous.
I understand some Native/Indigenous people, groups and organizations have vested interests on Xitter but please face reality. No matter how painful your personal and/or professional absence from Xitter could be to you, staying there is not something you should rationalize. At this point, a continued presence on that platform makes you complicit in a great deal of frankly non-Native colonial evil. Your ancestors are not proud, I guarantee this. You can change this today.
You can make a better future now
Here is hard part to chew, number two. Today, you have two decentralized social media alternatives that are currently not totally evil: Mastodon/ActivityPub and Bluesky/ATproto. Both are almost all white-owned and colonial as hell. As a Native/Indigenous person, why would you prefer white-owned colonial social media over Native-owned decolonized social media that has full network access? You have a choice.
Today is 2025 not pre-2022. And your choices include TurtleIsland.social Mastodon/ActivityPub and TurtleIs.land Bluesky/ATproto, but you can also start your own decolonized Mastodon or Bluesky social media with full network access if Turtle Island isn’t your cup of tea. A group or organization can start their own decolonized social media with full network access. There are no acceptable reasons for Native/Indigenous people to avoid decolonizing their social media.
If you are on white-owned colonial social media, and you have decolonized options you choose not to take… Don’t deceive yourself, you are not decolonized, you are part of the colonial machine by choice and preference.
If you choose data and moderation sovereignty
Not one to complain or go negative without a positive slant, I’m willing to help. You can signup at TurtleIsland.social and/or TurtleIs.land today. Or I can advise you on starting your own server. Think about it. Consider it. Do it. Don’t be colonial.
This post is subject to content updates/additions. If you think any content should be updated or added, please leave a private comment on Bluesky @Yehuda.TurtleIs.land or Mastodon TurtleIsland.social/@Yehuda. Mvto!
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!
