Turtle Island or “America”?

​The Naming of America

 What the Indigenous people in North America call their continent?

Above: Native Americans’ aerial view of the Four Directions’ Turtle Island.

 The First Humans Turtle Island

There is  archeological evidence over 50,000 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”Nortb, Central, South America, and the Caribbean islands. Each group named the unnamed territories that they settled after their self-identifying tribal names. In addition, some in the Northern continent called it “Turtle Island”, because from the air, the massive land area appeared to be in the shape of a giant turtle.



Above; Native American’s 

aerial view of the Four Dirdiction’s  Turtle Island.

 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 Waldseemüllerfor his world map now known as Waldseemüller map.[1] 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 Spainand Portugal. Vespucci was at the time a popular author about his explorations of what he called the "New World". However, some have suggested other explanations, including being named after the Amerrisque mountain rangein Nicaragua, or after Richard Amerike, a merchant from Bristol, England.

 

Above: Richard Amerike

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. 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)

 

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.