The Naming of America

 Indigenous History Ignored

 In spite of Trump's desire to rename today's proposed Europeanized "New America" from an Indigenous place name like New Mexico, the modern day Eurocentric attempts to Anglicize a continent which has already gone through an Amerindian Holocaust where over 100 million Indigenous people of the Americas were murdered, starting in 1492. 

For example, the more accurate Gulf of Mexico renamed to a ridiculous "Gulf of America", tells volumes about his advisor's lack of knowledge of ancient history of the Americas. There are many states that already have Native American names on an Anglicized northern Continent. Officially, At least 26 states have names of Native American origin, Ironically, the "Mexican" or Mexica, (pronounced as Mé-she-ka or Nahuatl language which is an indigenous Uto-Aztecan language family from the American Southwest. 

Above: Native American’s aerial view of theFour Direction’ss Turtle Island. The White North represents where the spirits go. The Yellow South represent the warm winds. The Red East represents the Sun a andthe Sourceee of Life. While Black represents the mysterious East.

 

The First Humans Turtle Island

There is  archeological evidence over 30,000 years ago, Asiatic people from Mongolia traveled across the Bearing Straits next to the Arctic and Canada, to become the first human in  pristine continents and islands we call”North, Central, South America, and the Caribbean islands. They are still the majority DNA in the entire Americas. Each group's named the unnamed territories that they settled was named by their self-identifying tribal names. In addition, some in the Northern continent called the entire land mass, “Turtle Island”, because from the air, the massive land area appeared to be in the shape of a giant turtle.

 Today President Trump, in-spite the original Native American territory,

 wants to rename many geographic areas “America”.

For example, he wants the state of New Mexico, whose tribal oriented name  is from the Mexica (Meheka or Mesheka) is a Uto-Aztecan word, whose tribal people travelled from Utah to their current location in Mexico as refugees, who were given an island that became which they expanded into Mexico City.

Next, centuries later, after Christopher Columbus's death in 1506. The earliest known use of the name America dates to April 25, 1507, when it was applied to what is now known as South America by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller for his world map now known as Waldseemüller map. It is generally accepted that he derived the "America" nomenclature from the name of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer, who explored the two continents on behalf of Spain and Portugal. Vespucci was at the time a popular author about his explorations of what he called the "New World" An already Older World. He had not seen interior ruins of many pyramids and architectural structures and was unaware of the ancient continent where the first pyramid was built in Peru, 100 years before Egyptian architect Imhotep designed for the Pharos Zocer, by placing varying sized mastabas (traditional tombs stacked in top of each other to create Egypt's first step-pyramid}. However, some have suggested other explanations, including being named after the Amerrisque mountain range in Nicaragua, or after Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, England.

 

Above: Richard Amerike's illustration of of the Amerrisque mountain range in Nicaragua. America Vespucci as depicted on the  Waldseemüller map. 

Before the late arrival of the foreign European Vikings arrived in North America around 1000 AD, they called the specific coastal region they explored in Alaska, Vinland (meaning "Vinland the Good" or "Land of Wine").

West African Arrivals.

Above: Abu Bakr II of Mali in West Africa and his ships.  Bakr took 2,000 ships, with sailors, builders, craftsmen, and enough provisions for several years. Illustration: Leo and Diane Dillon.

Fourteenth-century Malian ruler Mansa Musa was possibly the richest man in history. His empire covered most of West Africa, and his wealth was unfathomable.

In 1324, he set off on his Hajj, a Muslim’s once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca. He traveled 4,345km across the desert in extravagant fashion, with thousands of men wearing the finest silks and carrying gold objects. The entourage included hundreds of animals.

Amid all the excitement, he circulated a peculiar story about his predecessor, who supposedly sailed to the Americas long before the Mali Empire, before the Europeans.

 

 Above: Mali Empire, 1337. Illustration: Gabriel Moss (CC BY-SA) 

According to 14th-century Arab historian al-Umari, Musa briefly stayed in Cairo. There, he told the city governor about his predecessor, Abu Bakr II. Supposedly, Abu Bakr II abdicated the Malian throne and embarked on a great expedition across the Atlantic Ocean. He took 2,000 ships, with sailors, builders, craftsmen, and enough provisions for several years.  But Abu Bakr never returned, and Musa claimed the throne.

So, why are we not taught this and Amerindian history so that today's worldwide embarassing missteps  that show our ignorance, could be avoided?