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Description
It was nearly two centuries after the war against the Allegewi. Nenachihat, the Watcher, the leader of the Lenape, was in the midst of wondering about the future. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy were not giving up the war against his people. They threw insults and spears alike, despite the successful campaigns of his predecessors. His mind was on the art of war management, until a messenger interrupted his thought process. There was an embassy, the messenger told Nenachihat. Not from the enemy, as the chief would've hoped, but from the sea. A strange group of people had come to the shore from beyond the sunrise. Their hats were bizarre and their tools unfamiliar. Their vessels were as large as longhouses, the messenger claimed. Nenachihat was as surprised as he was intrigued by this news.

So he went to meet with this embassy, and found that they seemed just as curious about him as he was of them. Their leader stepped forward. He seemed lost, like he had been expecting to arrive somewhere else. He asked Nenachihat what this continent was called. Nenachihat was confused by the obviousness of the question, but he was polite, and gave the answer regardless. This continent is called Turtle Island, he told the travelers. The travelers blinked. Turtle Island? They asked him what he meant. Was that a part of Asia? Now it was Nenachihat's turn to blink. These men must have come from far away, if they had not been hit on the head chasing some sort of mythical land of legend. But he remained polite, and told them no, this land is Turtle Island and only Turtle Island. As it had been for thousands of years. But the travellers still seemed confused, and so Nenachihat decided it might be easier to explain through story. So he invited the travelers to stay in town, and gathered their leaders around the fire when night fell. Nenachihat sat and grabbed a stick to draw in the sand with. And so he began the story of their continent.

It was many thousands of years ago, no one was quite sure how many after so long. The world was a peaceful one, until corruption over a sacred treasure led to war and strife amongst the different nations of the land. The Creator spirit sent the hero Nanabush to try to bring the people together, but greed continued to ruin any attempts at redemption. And so the result was a massive flood that drowned all the land in water for as far as the eye could see. Nanabush fled to the tallest mountain to escape the water, and brought with him animals of every species. As this mountain too became flooded, Nanabush asked the animals who could carry them all safely. The turtle volunteered to carry the animals, and so Nanabush made a plan to rebuild the continent on the turtle's back. He first sent the beaver into the water to try to retrieve the soil from the bottom, but the water was too deep, and the beaver floated to the top dead. The loon tried second, but met the same fate. Next tried the muskrat, who also rose up dead, but he held on his nose some of the dirt from the bottom. Nanabush blessed the muskrat for his success, and then placed the dirt on the turtle's shell. With this starting patch now in place, Nanabush used his magic to make the turtle and the dirt grow and grow, until the new continent was large enough for it to take longer than a lifetime to walk to the edge. It was on this new continent that all the species and human nations rebuilt and started anew. And so it was that the land was called Turtle Island.

The travelers seemed intrigued by Nenachihat's story. They even seemed oddly familiar with some parts of it. They were thankful for the explanation, and they carried the memory of it with them when they left Turtle Island. The travelers' leader returned back to his homeland. He hoped to return to the land one day, but he needed a map. He had heard the news of other travellers journeying to Turtle Island before, and there were cartographers doing what they did best based on their reports. So the traveler came to one such mapmaker, a man named Martin, and commissioned a piece from him. Martin obliged, and provided a map with the other half of the world labeled down. It wasn't the name that the traveler was told, but Martin simply shrugged.

"It was Amerigo's discovery," was all he replied with as his excuse.

Description
It was nearly two centuries after the war against the Allegewi. Nenachihat, the Watcher, the leader of the Lenape, was in the midst of wondering about the future. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy were not giving up the war against his people. They threw insults and spears alike, despite the successful campaigns of his predecessors. His mind was on the art of war management, until a messenger interrupted his thought process. There was an embassy, the messenger told Nenachihat. Not from the enemy, as the chief would've hoped, but from the sea. A strange group of people had come to the shore from beyond the sunrise. Their hats were bizarre and their tools unfamiliar. Their vessels were as large as longhouses, the messenger claimed. Nenachihat was as surprised as he was intrigued by this news.

So he went to meet with this embassy, and found that they seemed just as curious about him as he was of them. Their leader stepped forward. He seemed lost, like he had been expecting to arrive somewhere else. He asked Nenachihat what this continent was called. Nenachihat was confused by the obviousness of the question, but he was polite, and gave the answer regardless. This continent is called Turtle Island, he told the travelers. The travelers blinked. Turtle Island? They asked him what he meant. Was that a part of Asia? Now it was Nenachihat's turn to blink. These men must have come from far away, if they had not been hit on the head chasing some sort of mythical land of legend. But he remained polite, and told them no, this land is Turtle Island and only Turtle Island. As it had been for thousands of years. But the travellers still seemed confused, and so Nenachihat decided it might be easier to explain through story. So he invited the travelers to stay in town, and gathered their leaders around the fire when night fell. Nenachihat sat and grabbed a stick to draw in the sand with. And so he began the story of their continent.

It was many thousands of years ago, no one was quite sure how many after so long. The world was a peaceful one, until corruption over a sacred treasure led to war and strife amongst the different nations of the land. The Creator spirit sent the hero Nanabush to try to bring the people together, but greed continued to ruin any attempts at redemption. And so the result was a massive flood that drowned all the land in water for as far as the eye could see. Nanabush fled to the tallest mountain to escape the water, and brought with him animals of every species. As this mountain too became flooded, Nanabush asked the animals who could carry them all safely. The turtle volunteered to carry the animals, and so Nanabush made a plan to rebuild the continent on the turtle's back. He first sent the beaver into the water to try to retrieve the soil from the bottom, but the water was too deep, and the beaver floated to the top dead. The loon tried second, but met the same fate. Next tried the muskrat, who also rose up dead, but he held on his nose some of the dirt from the bottom. Nanabush blessed the muskrat for his success, and then placed the dirt on the turtle's shell. With this starting patch now in place, Nanabush used his magic to make the turtle and the dirt grow and grow, until the new continent was large enough for it to take longer than a lifetime to walk to the edge. It was on this new continent that all the species and human nations rebuilt and started anew. And so it was that the land was called Turtle Island.

The travelers seemed intrigued by Nenachihat's story. They even seemed oddly familiar with some parts of it. They were thankful for the explanation, and they carried the memory of it with them when they left Turtle Island. The travelers' leader returned back to his homeland. He hoped to return to the land one day, but he needed a map. He had heard the news of other travellers journeying to Turtle Island before, and there were cartographers doing what they did best based on their reports. So the traveler came to one such mapmaker, a man named Martin, and commissioned a piece from him. Martin obliged, and provided a map with the other half of the world labeled down. It wasn't the name that the traveler was told, but Martin simply shrugged.

"It was Amerigo's discovery," was all he replied with as his excuse.