Header image: Saabe Dream by Mishiikenh Kwe Used with permission ©Mishiikenh Kwe https://www.instagram.com/mishiikenhkwe

This is a North American Native/Indigenous and true allies only instance.

To successfully register here:

If you are Native/Indigenous, at the 'About yourself and why you'd like to join' prompt, enter your Native/Indigenous Nation and other Fediverse account(s) to help the moderators approve your account.

OR

If you are non-Native/Indigenous, at the 'About yourself and why you'd like to join' prompt, yes it's awkward, but list reasons and other Fediverse account(s) to help the moderators approve your account.

Anything else or less specific may not get approved. Failure to do the above WILL result in your registration rejection.

You MUST read and agree to this entire document.

Mvskoke Nation citizens own and admin TurtleIsland.* instances. Native/Indigenous people and allies moderate TurtleIsland.* instances

If you have any official questions, reach out to one of the admins:
@Yehuda@TurtleIsland.social or @Tzipporah@TurtleIsland.social.

Welcome to TurtleIsland.buzz!

• TurtleIsland.social is a (Twitter-like) Mastodon instance est. Dec 2022
• TurtleIsland.rocks is a (Twitter-like) Akkoma instance est. Dec 2023
• TurtleIsland.buzz is a (Instagram-like) Pixelfed instance est. Mar 2024

Fediverse?

The Fediverse is a social media network that uses the ActivityPub protocol. TurtleIsland.* instances and other applications/network nodes (instances) are connected and communicate with each other via the Fediverse (ActivityPub) network. You only need to join one instance to like, follow, post, view and share content with the thousands of other instances in the Fediverse.

Why?

TurtleIsland.* instances are ad-free, corporate-free, bigotry-free, and culture respectful environments for North American Native/Indigenous people and their allies to be in community and safe spaces.

• Ultimately, we are helping to build an Indigenized social network.
• We stand with our people.
• We know and support their struggles.
• We moderate to Indigenous standards not colonial standards.

Who? Where?

TurtleIsland.* instances accept user registrations from North American Native/Indigenous people and true allies only.

• TurtleIsland.social user registrations are available through the 'Create Account' portal at https://TurtleIsland.social/about
• TurtleIsland.rocks user registrations are available through the 'Register' portal at https://TurtleIsland.rocks/registration
• TurtleIsland.buzz user registrations are available through the 'Sign up' portal at https://TurtleIsland.buzz

How much?

TurtleIsland.* instances are 100% free. We will never charge fees or pressure anyone for donations. All expenses are paid for by the administrators and donations.

If you'd like to help with Turtle Island expenses:

• https://ko-fi.com/TurtleIsland
• https://cash.app/$Yehuda1491
• https://venmo.com/Yehuda1491

If you receive Pension/Social Security/Disability or less please don't. But if you can help Native/Indigenous Fediverse instances thrive and grow, it would be much appreciated.

What?

TurtleIsland.* instances are small/medium sized instances due to our specialized nature.

• TurtleIsland.* instances will never be large general purpose instances and will be Indigenized as much as possible.
• We are federated with 99% of the Fediverse but use no relays in order to maximize content relevant to our users.

TurtleIsland.* instances believe 100% in true Native/Indigenous Nation sovereignty, physical and digital LandBack. We reject calls to assimilate into the nearly all white culture Fediverse. The whole ghettoization theory is white supremacy garbage.

Blocked instances

We now use the Seirdy Tier 0 blocklist, which blocks the majority of the bad actors without getting crazy aggressive. If you see anything blocked or not blocked that you believe is in error, let us know.

• All TurtleIsland.* instances block Threads.

Commitment

• TurtleIsland.social is committed to 3 months notice in the extremely unlikely event we should decide to pull the plug.
• TurtleIsland.rocks is committed to 3 months notice in the extremely unlikely event we should decide to pull the plug.
• TurtleIsland.buzz is committed to 6 months notice in the extremely unlikely event we should decide to pull the plug.

Backup and Maintenance

• TurtleIsland.social configuration files, media and database storage are backed up daily to a remote secure object storage. All other instances are backed up weekly, generally on Wednesdays at 5am CST with a full virtual server snapshot.
• TurtleIsland.* instances may have unscheduled maintenance or upgrade events. We have over 99% uptime availability.

Data, Image and File Warranties/Guarantees

Even though there are regular backup procedures, there are no data, image and file warranties/guarantees. Images may be compressed or resized. It is user responsibility to keep copies of all data, images and files uploaded to or created on Turtle Island instances.

Turtle Island Rules

1. These are Indigenous instances.

• Any anti-Indigenous activity from a Turtle Island account at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for account(s) termination.
• Any anti-Indigenous activity from an external instance at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for user blocking, report filing, and/or domain blocking/de-federation.

2. We can't stress this enough - Absolutely no racism, anti-semitism, islamophobia, pro-genocide, pro-ethnic cleansing, pro-terrorism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. 95%+ of our issues fall in this category; we take this seriously.

• Any infraction of this category from a Turtle Island account at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for account termination.
• Any infraction of this category from an external instance at the sole determination of the administrators or moderators will be grounds for user blocking, report filing, and/or domain blocking/de-federation.

Extra clarity current events note:

River to Sea is ethnic cleansing and anti-Semitic. Promoting settlements in the West Bank is ethnic cleansing and Islamophobic. It doesn't matter how many misinformed or disingenuous articles you read or who counsels you otherwise, these acts cannot be sanitized. The majority of the Jewish population will see River to Sea as ethnic cleansing and very anti-Semitic, and the majority of the Palestinian population will see settlement building in the West Bank as ethnic cleansing and very Islamophobic. These are just a couple examples that come up frequently.

You can criticize the Israeli or Palestinian governments all day and night long if you wish, but the moment you add anti-Semitic or Islamophobic material to your post, the whole post becomes anti-Semitic or Islamophobic.

Turtle Island instances officially support a two state solution in Israel/Palestine as the only realistic and fair solution for the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. Both peoples are factually Indigenous to the region by the same standards that apply to North American Indigenous peoples. If this is not clear to you, you need to go back to non-propaganda history study.

If any part of this current events note makes you chafe, Turtle Island may not be the place for you. Peace and co-existence are the only acceptable goals on Turtle Island.

3. Advertising authentic Indigenous products and genuine Indigenous businesses is allowed and encouraged.

• Advertising fake inspired appropriated products by non-Indigenous businesses is not allowed.

4. We strongly support and encourage Mutual Aid with #IndigenousMutualAid, #SettlerSaturday and #MutualAid hashtags.

• Requests for mutual aid must be on your original post. Requests cannot be made in unsolicited comments or private messages to other users.
• Posts cannot tag other users, especially bulk user lists.
• Inappropriate hashtag bombing is not allowed.
• Guideline violations could result locally in post deletion or user suspension, or remotely in user or instance defederation.

5. No Native/Indigenous gatekeeping of accounts on Native/Indigenous instances.

• If you have an issue with the Indigeneity of an account on an Indigenous instance, DM or email the admins and/or moderators of the instance.
• Regardless of the opinions and seriousness of this subject or what instance a user of questionable Indigeneity may be on, immature and abusive posts, dogpiling, parody or sock puppet accounts, etc. are part of a vibe we do not want coming here from Twitter and are expressly not allowed.
• None of this is to say the Pretendian subject is forbidden, but keep it mature please.

6. Promotion of Right-Wing, Conservative, Republican, Fascist, Nazi or other equally stupid political views is not allowed.

• If moral deficiency is your inclination, go somewhere else.

7. This goes against Turtle Island's preferences, but in acquiescence to Fediverse community standards, NSFW content requires Content Warnings (CWs). Nudity, porn or gratuitous violence requires CWs. Turtle Island does not require CWs for other types of content. If you are in doubt, please ask. Generally speaking though, if you are easily offended, Turtle Island may not be the place for you.

8. Any other issues not covered by these rules will be settled by the sole determination of the administrators or moderators.