350 BC (Before Columbus) in the land between Niagara and the Great Salt Sea, in a world where no Europeans had set foot, there lived Five Great Nations caught up in a cycle of bloody revenge wars until a holy man showed them the path to peace. Turtle Island is the gripping saga of the downfall of the powerful chief Hiawatha after his four daughters are murdered in a blood revenge, his quest for vengeance, his conversion to the cause of peace by the Great Peacemaker Dekanawida, and his rise to fame as the charismatic orator who helps Dekanawida heal the wounds of the Iroquois Nations and form the first democracy on the American continent. And it is the tale of Orios, a young poetic flute player in love with Hiawatha's daughter who comes of age in his harrowing adventures with Hiawatha. Set in a matriarchal culture in the lake region of New York, Turtle Island takes the reader back to a time when people respected the Earth as the mother of life and based their democracy on what it means to be a true human being who cares for Mother Earth and the welfare of her unborn children. The novel deals with profound issues of family, spirituality, war, peace, democracy, and the nature of good and evil. It has a special appeal for any reader interested in history, feminism, Native Americans, spirituality, ecology, or a bloody saga of murder and revenge. The action and adventure in this quest for spiritual healing and peace gives the book a dramatic momentum with a powerful message for the modern world currently immersed in similar revenge wars and a divisive struggle to protect the resources of the earth for future generations.