Maple Leaves and the Turtle

Gold Tone chain, with red, orange and yellow enamel maple leaves, and glass teardrop beads. Silver-tone turtle surrounded by gold feathers as a focal point.

Turtle

The name Turtle Island has been used by many Indigenous cultures in North America, and both native and non-native activists, especially since the 1970s when the term came into wider usage. American author and ecologist Gary Snyder uses the term to refer to North America, writing that it synthesizes both indigenous and colonizer cultures, by translating the indigenous name into the colonizer's languages (the Spanish "Isla Tortuga" being proposed as a name as well). Snyder argues that understanding North America under the name of Turtle Island will help shift conceptions of the continent.