#native turtle island

[kinepiko]

Hatsune Miku !

Turtle Island Version

Everyone started drawing Miku from their country so I wanted to join in :D

[decolonize-the-everything]

I’ve seen Palestinians refer to their homeland as Occupied Palestine and “Israel” as the occupation, to better illustrate the settler colonial history of “Israel” and deny it legitimacy. As “America” is also a settler colony, would it be accurate to refer to the so-called “USA” in general as Occupied Turtle Island/the American Occupation or is that terminology specific to Palestine?

Turtle Island is the name given to North America by the Anishinaabe, though it's certainly not the only indigenous name. The Anishinaabe/Ojibwe/Chippewa just happen to be one of the largest native group so a lot of our terms are more easily popularized.

And I'd say yes and no as for it's accuracy tbh.

Like with Palestine, you have to be Very Clear when differentiating the people of Turtle Island and our wants from the US government and the people who support the US government.

You can't support Palestinian liberation and the existence of the state colonizing them. In the same way you can't claim to support Native liberation and Turtle Island but still want to remain our colonizer.

It's one thing to say you support native sovereignty, it's another entirely to realize that support in practice would mean calling & working for the US to be dismantled; it means Choosing to be a person from Turtle Island instead.

So yes, call it Turtle Island, but say it with the understanding and gravity of it.

Start by learning 5 medicinal plants and 5 edible plants in your area, figure out how you can support local tribes. Learn how to be from Turtle Island instead of the USA. Find values and principles to believe in that are your own and not just moralized propaganda.

The less dependent you are on the US, the less freedom you realize you have within it.

[canisvesperus]

And we wouldn’t have to pay to see ourselves in museums.

Source

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

There is nothing to celebrate today. If you are one of the lucky few with today off (as I am), take some time to learn why.

#LandBack

Repost from @intersectionalenvironmentalist

•

There is no pride in genocide.

As the U.S. celebrates Independence Day, we cannot dismiss the continuous acts of injustice against Black and Indigenous people.

✏️About the Researcher: @kianna_pete

Kianna was a Spring 2022 Social Media Fellow at IE and studied political science and ethnicity & race studies with a specialization in Indigenous/Native studies at Columbia University. ✨

💻Sources:

peoplesworld.org/article/july-4th-whose-independence-day-is-it/

nbcnews.com/news/us-news/six-things-you-didn-t-know-about-

fourth-july-n779331

smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/

2020/07/01/do-american-indians-celebrate-4th-july/

meaww.com/independence-day-july-4-native-americans-do-they-celebrate-lost-traditions-early-suppression

culturalsurvival.org/news/united-states-independence-masked-genocide-and-imperialism

[olowan-waphiya]

A huge ancient city has been found in the Amazon, hidden for thousands of years by lush vegetation.

The discovery changes what we know about the history of people living in the Amazon.

The houses and plazas in the Upano area in eastern Ecuador were connected by an astounding network of roads and canals.

The area lies in the shadow of a volcano that created rich local soils but also may have led to the destruction of the society.

While we knew about cities in the highlands of South America, like Machu Picchu in Peru, it was believed that people only lived nomadically or in tiny settlements in the Amazon.

"This is older than any other site we know in the Amazon. We have a Eurocentric view of civilisation, but this shows we have to change our idea about what is culture and civilisation," says Prof Stephen Rostain, director of investigation at the National Centre for Scientific Research in France, who led the research.

"It changes the way we see Amazonian cultures. Most people picture small groups, probably naked, living in huts and clearing land - this shows ancient people lived in complicated urban societies," says co-author Antoine Dorison.

The city was built around 2,500 years ago, and people lived there for up to 1,000 years, according to archaeologists.

It is difficult to accurately estimate how many people lived there at any one time, but scientists say it is certainly in the 10,000s if not 100,000s.

The archaeologists combined ground excavations with a survey of a 300 sq km (116 sq mile) area using laser sensors flown on a plane that could identify remains of the city beneath the dense plants and trees.

—

"The road network is very sophisticated. It extends over a vast distance, everything is connected. And there are right angles, which is very impressive," he says, explaining that it is much harder to build a straight road than one that fits in with the landscape.

The scientists also identified causeways with ditches on either side which they believe were canals that helped manage the abundant water in the region.

There were signs of threats to the cities - some ditches blocked entrances to the settlements, and may be evidence of threats from nearby people.

Researchers first found evidence of a city in the 1970s, but this is the first time a comprehensive survey has been completed, after 25 years of research.

It reveals a large, complex society that appears to be even bigger than the well-known Mayan societies in Mexico and Central America.

—

Some of the findings are "unique" for South America, he explains, pointing to the octagonal and rectangular platforms arranged together.

The societies were clearly well-organised and interconnected, he says, highlighting the long sunken roads between settlements.

Not a huge amount is known about the people who lived there and what their societies were like.

Pits and hearths were found in the platforms, as well as jars, stones to grind plants and burnt seeds.

—

Prof Rostain says he was warned against this research at the start of his career because scientists believed no ancient groups had lived in the Amazon.

[alfredo-zauce]

EAT A DICK @staff

[bimdraws]

Turtle Island stands with Palestine 🇵🇸🌎

[astraphel]

On October 12, 1492, Columbus arrived on the shores of the Caribbean, the now-called Bahamas, and the Taíno people welcomed him and his crew with respect and great care. Their kindness was repaid with vicious cruelty and enslavement. 

The horrors of genocide left no one untouched on Turtle Island and Abya Yala, but the Taínos were the first to encounter this scourge. There aren't enough people who call them by name and claim a ubiquitous "indigenous peoples" encountered Columbus. 

Know and name the Taíno and the ways they suffered as a result of First Contact. 

And also the ways they have persisted and survived to this day. Check out the United Confederation of Taíno People (UCTP) / Confederación Unida De El Pueblo Taíno (CUPT) as a place to start.

The Taino peoples are not a monolith and include many different tribes and areas.

Image 1: Cristobal Colón, 1893 "La gran batalla que tuvo el almirante con el Rey Guarionex y cien mil indios en la Vega Real" | Wikipedia

Image 2: "Distribución de los arahuacos taínos, caribes y guanahatabeyes en las Antillas, en el tiempo de la llegada de los españoles." | Wikipedia

[fluorescentwolf]

From Turtle Island to Palestine

While painting I noticed the olive leaves' silhouette matches the feather; coincidental shape harmony.

[decolonize-the-everything]

MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) is a human rights crisis of violence against Indigenous women in Canada and the United States

Quick facts:

4 of 5 Native women will experience violence

1/3 of Native women will experience sexual violence (and over 2/3 of that is committed by non-natives)

Murder is our 3rd leading cause of death

On some reservations MMIWG2S are murdered at 10x the national average rate

In general native women and girls are raped at twice the average national rate

According to a report by USA today, native women also go missing at the twice average national rate

Nearly all rapes are perpetuated by off reservations settlers who also face no legal repercussions (legal loopholes state you must be on tribal ground to be persecuted by tribal police and most don't stick sround)

Less than 1% of MMIW cases are logged

It's been awhile since I've since Ive posted about this, but it's a very important topic and one that's especially important to me right now.

Some of you following me have all the context clues but I'll say it plainly here on this post. My cousin is one of the many MMIW that have died awful deaths. I myself am one of the natives who've experiences violence and sexual violence. The article is right. I don't know a native who hasn't. And that shouldn't have to be our reality.

But it doesn't change without more support and we don't get support by keeping people in the dark. Unfortunately resources are directly tied to public interest in an issue. The actual MMIW site for example says it's on hiatus when you go to the resource section.

So please share this so that someone else can learn and become an ally to the cause. The way people treat native women, girls, and two spirits is awful and deserves more attention than it's getting.

May 5th is MMIW awareness day; please wear red, share our posts, schedule a vigil, make your own graphics/posts in support, etc. Make some time to show you care that day.

Just don't use the red hand over your mouth, this is representative of the violent silence MMIW are forced to keep in their graves and how those of us alive must speak for them. Its a heavy symbol that carries responsibility so it's best left alone if you aren't indigenous.

[lasttarrasque]

Zionist expectations vs reality

[daloy-politsey]

[Image description: A facebook post from Alliance of Native Seedkeepers dated November 21, 2021 that reads

"Stop with these "Know whose land you're on" maps which have been sourced from native-land.ca

Native-land.ca has a disclaimer at the start of its website, which states

"This map does not represent or intend to represent official or legal boundaries of any Indigenous nations. To learn about definitive boundaries, contact the nations in question.

Also, this map is not perfect -- it is a work in progress with tons of contributions from the community. Please send us fixes if you find errors."

Some of us are historians that are quite familiar with our traditional boundaries, historical sites, and our relationship to the land. We are TIRED of having to have this discussion about the errors of this map, however we cannot avoid having to discuss it as it has proven harmful on multiple incidents.

Within the last several years, these maps were used to deny the right of indigenous people from their burial sites and other significant sites. These sites are within the bounds of pipelines planned through VA. Utilizing this map allowed for the argument of ignorance as to avoid consultation of those tribal bodies. Although this map and that argument does not hold any sort of legal ground... It does create a sandbag wall that must be overcome, when that time would be better served doing our other important work.

Another incident that we are personally aware of was the land access to a site significant to some of our peoples food ways. The people had been removed from this area for over 300 years but still make attempts to access it. This map was utilized by the owners to determine it should go to the WRONG tribal body. When historians from various tribal bodies as well as non-natives corrected the people on this error, disputes occured which left land access in limbo.

Not only do land access and sacred site access becomes an issue when this map is used... It has also created animosity between people as well as delayed our people away from the work that is important to them.

Land acknowledgments become offensive as entire bodies are removed from the discussion... As more and more people take these maps as accurate representations, they continue to press ethnocide of entire populations, and places sacred sites at future risk...

These maps contain various revisionist identities to single tribal bodies... They also exclude historical tribal bodies... They inflate contemporary tribal boundaries beyond their range, and deflate traditional boundaries from historical groups...

These maps are a HUGE responsibility and should not occur until there is complete and accurate consultation with those tribal bodies within their respective regions. However, one cannot also expect to extract this work for free, a map like this will call for a huge expense as native people, are not always the wealthiest, and don't always have the time and capacity to do this work."

/end ID]

[defleftist]

I’m spending Indigenous People’s Day here in the US holding space for those all around the world who have been dispossessed from their land due to colonialism.

[typhlonectes]

Just a river’s crossing away from St. Louis, Missouri, rests an ancient and mysterious anthropological site that few Americans know of. Scholars still discuss the potential reasons for the demise of Cahokia, a massive settlement that may have housed as many as 20,000 people by 1050 A.D. The metropolis, which sits in the fertile floodplain of the Mississippi River Valley that’s now western Illinois, was made up of towering, handmade earthen mounds, the largest of which still exists at the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. While there are a lot of unknowns when it comes to this ancient civilization, including why it disappeared, remains have helped researchers paint a picture of what the city was like at its peak...