Category Archives: Native

TurtleIs.land Bluesky PDS server now open

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.

Click here –>> Request TurtleIs.land Bluesky PDS 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

Dominant Culture Fragility

Reservation Dogs Deer Lady doing what needs to be done

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.

#LandBack #DigitalBack #MMIWG2S

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Indigenous Critical Reflections

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

Order here, and use promo code S25 for 20% off and free domestic US shipping:
Indigenous Critical Reflections On Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Settler Colonialism Introduction

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.

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Turtle Island Native Indigenous Mastodon instance

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 #DigitalLandBack

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Mvskoke History & Resources

Native sources

Native sources of Mvskoke history will have the most accuracy.

Muscogee Nation

Download PDF:
Mvskoke History: A Short Course for Muscogee Nation Employees

Non-Native sources

I wouldn’t be sharing these selections if they weren’t decent sources of easily digestible Mvskoke history or important reference materials. Keep in mind however, that information from non-Native sources may have non-Native perspectives or bias, even if slight or subtle.

For example, generally when colonizer history says hundreds of years, Mvskoke history says thousands of years. This is something to remember, even the best non-Native historical documentation has built-in bias and inaccuracy doing its best to erase or minimize Natives.

Smithsonian Institution

This is a great slideshow (including videos) of Mvskoke history.

Before the Trail of Tears removal 23 pages.
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal-muscogee/before.html

During the Trail of Tears removal 15 pages.
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal-muscogee/during.html

After the Trail of Tears removal 17 pages.
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/removal-muscogee/after.html

Videos

Yehuda’s Mvskoke Video Playlist

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Mvskoke Nation Indigenous Books

TurtleIsland.blog, TurtleIsland.social and TurtleIs.land do not sell anything, receive or charge fees. We do this strictly to help grow the Indigenous Fediverse community and encourage people to join us on Turtle Island Internet properties.

TurtleIsland.blog, TurtleIsland.social and TurtleIs.land Internet properties are volunteer led and donation financed.

Many Indigenous creatives or stores are often multi-disciplinary and sell multiple types of creative items. The best thing you can do is check out their links and take a look at everything they offer.

Authors

Michelle Joy Gallagher Soffe

Michelle Joy Gallagher Soffe is an author of poetry and prose from Sacramento, California. She is mother to 3 children and 2 fantastic dogs. Testing the limits and playing with the elasticity and beauty of the english language is one of her passions. With an affinity for astronomy and physics, she often makes correlations between the corporeal and the cosmos.
Mastodon: @Hvresse@turtleisland.social
Store: https://www.NihtgengaPress.com
Blog: https://MichelleJoyGallagher.com

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Decolonization is not a metaphor

This article is a MUST READ

Decolonization is not a metaphor
By Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang

“Our goal in this article is to remind readers what is unsettling about decolonization. Decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life; it is not a metaphor for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools.”

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Settler Colonialism Introduction

Reversing Manifest Destiny by Native artist Charles Hilliard

Lara A. Jacobs, also a Mvskoke citizen and an incredibly gifted Native scientist, was kind enough to allow me to republish her incredible introduction to settler colonialism. At the end of this page there is more information.

An educational for settlers on #IndigenousPeoplesDay

What is settler colonialism? What is colonization? What happened when settlers arrived? What did they bring with them?

An Indigenous version of US History

America’s “Greatest Ideas” the National Park Service— In reality they were created as a tool of dispossession.

Parks as tools of dispossession continued; other land dispossessions; UNDRIP

Genocide and tools of assimilation

Dispossessions of bodies by universities and museums

#LandBack

Lara A. Jacobs is a Citizen of Muscogee (Creek) Nation and in the final year of her Forest Ecosystems and Society Ph.D. program at Oregon State University. Her research focuses on the pathogenic and ecological impacts of outdoor recreation activities and how such impacts may pose issues for Tribal Peoples and outdoor recreationists. Lara blends Indigenous Sciences (e.g., Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous Value systems) with western scientific methods (e.g., visitor monitoring and mapping, geographic information systems, cellular and molecular biology, etc.) as a means to resolve socio-ecological issues. Lara has worked with large groups of Indigenous scholars to publish manuscripts about how land management entities can work through co-equity-based managerial frameworks to support Tribal sovereignty and Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and has also published manuscripts that focus on COVID-19 in parks and protected areas and the need to center Indigenous Peoples’ and Tribal Nations in climate change discourse and research. Lara is currently editing a book called Indigenous Voices: Critical Reflections on Traditional Ecological Knowledge that should be published in 2024. Lara holds a B.S. in Women Studies from Oregon State University, an M.A. in Environmental Studies from Prescott College with a concentration in Conservation Science, Environmental Education, and Sustainability, and a Certificate from the University of Toronto in GIS, Mapping, and Spatial Analysis Specialization.

Lara’s publications

If you learned anything from this thread and want to pass some funds Lara’s way for this free labor, here’s her details:

Lara Jacobs
@ecohugger.bsky.social

Cite Lara’s tweets and/or her many manuscripts and the countless work that Indigenous scholars have produced if you plan to use this info.

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Indigenous Fediverse Instances

There are estimated to be over 12,000 Mastodon instances (servers) in the Fediverse, but there is only one North American Native/Indigenous instance with the high reliability record of TurtleIsland.social.

TurtleIsland.social

Native owned and operated for Native/Indigenous people in North America. TurtleIsland.social is ad-free, corporate-free, bigotry-free, and culture respectful.
https://turtleisland.social/about

TurtleIsland.social is highly recommended as the best, most reliable choice you can make in choosing a Fediverse instance. It is professionally hosted and has developer level support. It is a 5 nines site, in other words fully operational 99.999% of the time — an average of less than 6 minutes downtime per year. It is fully capable of celebrity or high demand users. It doesn’t get better than this.

Mvto!
-Yehuda

Mvskoke Nation Indigenous Beadwork

TurtleIsland.blog, TurtleIsland.social and TurtleIs.land do not sell anything, receive or charge fees. We do this strictly to help grow the Indigenous Fediverse community and encourage people to join us on Turtle Island Internet properties.

TurtleIsland.blog, TurtleIsland.social and TurtleIs.land Internet properties are volunteer led and donation financed.

Many Indigenous creatives or stores are often multi-disciplinary and sell multiple types of creative items. The best thing you can do is check out their links and take a look at everything they offer.

Cvkvlv.com Beadwork – Mvskoke

Tzipporah, a Mvskoke and Jewish artist, photographer and beader. Follow them on Mastodon, on Bluesky, and their Online Store to watch their beading journey. Header image has examples of Tzipporah’s beadwork.
Mastodon: @Tzipporah@turtleisland.social
Mastodon: @CvkvlvBeadwork@turtleisland.social
Bluesky: @Tzipporah.Cvkvlv.com
Bluesky: @Cvkvlv.com
Online Store: https://Cvkvlv.com

Mvto!
-Yehuda