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 Miskito People

History

Recent conflicts over indigenous lands

Despite the 1987 peace agreement affording the Miskito people substantial territory, conflict over land rights remains. Increasing waves of settlers have relocated to ancestral Miskito lands as a result of drought and attraction to gold and timber. Illegal purchases of indigenous lands afforded the settling farmers void land rights. Violence between settlers and Miskito, Rama, and Ulwa people have led to the burning of villages, rape of women, kidnappings and the death of at least 30. Approximately 600 indigenous people have fled to Honduras.

Currently, both sides acknowledge that the Nicaraguan government has not worked to ameliorate this conflict. The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights repeatedly called for action in order to protect the Miskitos, to no governmental response. President Daniel Ortega has acknowledged that Miskito land claims are legitimate, and any land sales were not legal. The government arrested various public notaries for the authorization of illegal land sales, and created a special commission over the issue under the prosecutor general. However, the government has not addressed the violence. The public officials implicated in illegal land sales were Sandinistas, members of Ortega's own party.

Classification

Applicability of the term "ethnic group" to Miskito people

Historically, the Miskito were not recognized as a singular "people" until their population grew beyond being cateogrized as "sparsely populated." Largely, the Miskito are identified by their large amounts of ethnic heterogeneity resulting from miscegenation from African and native ancestors. In addition, their consistent historical and modern-day geographic presence on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and Honduras allows for recognition as an "ethnic group."

Subgroups

As a result of the ethnic heterogeniety present in the Miskito people, various ethnic subgroups exist within the larger Miskito identity. A major ethnic distinction exists between the Zambo Miskito and the Tawira. The Zambo Miskito constitute a large ethnic representation of Africans in the Cabo Gracias a Dios area, the survivors from a shipwrecked Dutch slaver. The Zambo Miskito would go on to form strong relationships with the British, with many Miskito kings coming from this group. The Zambo Miskito speak the Wanki Bila dialect of Miskito.

The Tawira Miskito, in contrast, have greater native ethnic representation and speak the Kabo Bila dialect of Miskito. According to Meringer, historical records reference the Tawira as "pure Indians." In order to counter their subjugation by the Zambo Miskito, the Tawira Miskito would seek out Spanish allies in the eighteenth century.

Geography

Nicaragua

Miskitos inhabit the low-lying savannah known as the Miskito Coast in Central America. Prior to European contact, Miskitos were scattered along the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, inhabiting interior mountainous areas with numerous rivers and forests. The central point of Miskito territory is known as the Río Coco or Wangks River, which also serves as a border between Nicaragua and Honduras.

Honduras 

Prior to the Wyke-Cruz treaty with Britain, Miskito people inhabited the Cape of Gracias a Dios on the Caribbean coast and Honduran side of the Nicaragua-Honduras border. Despite the 1859 British treaty gaving the Miskito authority over the land, it has been ignored. However, their autonomy has been preserved as a result of their geographic isolation. In 2013, the Honduran granted five Miskito communities land titles to their traditional land, totaling about 1.6 million acres. 100 villages exist in this area, containing a population of approximately 22,000.

Culture

Language

The majority of Miskitos speak their native Miskito language. The Miskito language is a part of the Misumalpan langauage family.  Some villages also speak sumu, a closely related language within these ethnic groups. In addition, many Miskitos have adopted figures of speech from English and Spanish largely resulting from increased instances of bilingualism. The Caribbean areas of Jamaica, Belize, San Andrés, and Providence, Colombia share linguistic commonalities with the Miskito Coast population, likely stemming from the mixture of native languages, African languages, as well as colonial languages.

Religion

Shamanism

Prior to contact, Miskito people practiced a type of Shamanism where the shaman (known as Sukya) was seen as a healer by the community. The Sukya discovered cures by dreaming about them, and blowing smoke on the affected area. Group traditions included ritual dancing and drinking of a beverage known as mishla. Funeral traditions included a commemorative ceremony one year after death called Sikro.Only one leading shaman, known as Supreme Sukya or Okuli, could exist at a time and was revered by neighboring tribes as well. The Okuli exists as a representative to evil spirits, called Lasas. In the 1980s, shamans and group ceremonies took place in private.

Moravian Church

The Moravian Church attempted to proselytize the Miskito beginning in 1849, after attempting to provide a religious institution for a nearby Prussian community which later failed. The Moravian Church represents a small branch of Protestantism that emphasizes community unity and simple living. By 1894, the Moravian Church had become a major interest group in the Atlantic coast area during the Nicaraguan reincorporation of the area through the establishment of missions. In the 20th century, the Moravian Church furthered its institutional presence through schools and production of religious materials and services in the Miskito native language. They did little to quell hostilities between the Miskito and Spaniard Catholics. By the 1960s, the Moravian Church seemed to play a central role in Miskito communities for anthropologists studying the area.

Catholicism

Catholic converts existed in the Miskito region as early as the 1930s. Because of poor resources to send properly trained parsons and pastors, Miskito Catholics practice several "innovations" specific to the Miskito Coast. The lack of institutional Catholic presence led to many Moravian practices shared by Catholic leaders in the area. As a result, many Miskitos view differences in religions as institutionally based rather than theologically based. Churches in the area hold sanctity when occupied by the community, and are not revered as buildings in and of themselves. Further, Miskito experience divinity through dreams and discussions of good, bad, and human spirits. Shamans known as prapit or pasa yapti are the only individuals who physically experience divinity. Thus, Miskito Catholicism departs significantly from traditional Spaniard Catholicism as practiced by the majority of Nicaragua as it contains dimensions of a spiritual realm of divinity which humans can sometimes access.

Literature

The Miskito share folktales called kisi for entertainment. Kisi often include tales of a trickster rabbit named Tibam as well as kings, overall serving themes of authority and human nature and general. Some stories include myths of Duhindu, creatures similar to gnomes that sometimes kidnap children. According to researchers Ken Decker and Andy Keener, the Miskito share poems and stories, but do not have largely disseminated pieces of literature nor has anything been published. Media that appears in the area is largely in Spanish, with some programming in English and in regional languages.

Arts

The Miskito have musical traditions including round dances and traditional songs, as well as theatrical pieces including the symbol of the Miskito king. Regarding decorative arts, funeral ceremonies involve wooden masks.

Institutions

Political Structure

The Miskito political structure has been profoundly shaped via its interactions with other cultures including Hispanicized Nicaragua as well as the British, acting on their perception of colonial power dynamics at any given time.

British Influence

Beginning with British arrival in the geographical area, the Miskito kingdom and political structure as a whole reflected British ideas of authority. The Miskito-British political dynamics would change with time but the two entities would remain operating in conjunction for approximately 250 years. Miskito kings were crowned by some of the first British settlers. This assignment of de facto political authority would create a lasting hierarchical power dynamic for the Miskito. Those recognized as kings by the British maintained this assignment as contact between mainland British and Miskitos increased.

Officially, the British government claimed political oversight of Miskito territory from 1740 to 1786--however, the British colonists inhabiting Miskito territory maintained the power dynamics established by the government even after its official expulsion. From 1860 to 1894, the Miskito Reserve period maintained centralized rule under a British-sympathetic Miskito chief. Importantly, the Nicaraguan government recognized this leader as Hereditary Chief but granted him authority over land separate from Miskito-inhabited land. Thus, through the Miskito Reserve the Miskito people were granted "autonomy," but remained under British influence through the designated chief.

The British ultimately largely failed in attempts to create fully functioning centralized political structures for the Miskito largely as a result of the heterogeneity within the Miskito population. However, their establishment of a singular political leader did allow that individual to gain favor with the British and allow for continued contact between the two societies.

18th Century Self-Rule in the Miskito Kingdom

Despite the propagated presence of British political ideology of centralized power, the political structure in the Miskito kingdom proved more tribal in nature. Late seventeenth century accounts of the Miskito describe them as an "egalitarian society" that was "sparsely populated." As the Miskito population grew over time, the political structure effectively transformed into autonomous regional chiefdoms with vaguely defined social classes. Leaders at the time would rule over a given number of villages, with their political power bound to their recognized villages. This structure served to limit any single Miskito king's power over the Miskito as a whole, instead playing up the Miskito king's role in interacting with the British.

Re-incorporation in the Nineteenth Century

According to Meringer, Miskito Indians enjoyed peak levels of autonomy in the nineteenth century after British colonists were forced out of the Mosquito Coast. The Miskito people themselves rose to power in the absence of the British, enjoying ethnic preeminence and little to no threats to their power. However, as the British began to resettle on the Atlantic Coast, the Miskito lost much of their officially recognized political power to African Creoles on representative governmental bodies. The Creoles would grow increasingly power, overcoming the Miskito chief, and politically and culturally isolating the chief from the Miskito people at large. By the time of Re-incorporation, Miskito autonomy had already been threatened and substantially deconstructed by increases in Creole power.

Thus, during Re-incorporation, Nicaraguan government officials targeted Creole rulers rather than Miskito Indians. Later, Miskito took this opportunity to further Miskito autonomy and political authority in the region through a Decree of Re-incorporation which allowed representatives from the Miskito community to freely adhere to Nicaraguan laws and authorities while also granting Miskito people self-governance rights at the village level among other rights. This decree allowed previously marginalized Miskito to reclaim rights denied them by the ascendance of Creole elites earlier in the nineteenth century and allowed the population to unify.

Twentieth Century Mobilization

In response to the indigenismo policies adopted throughout Latin America in the twentieth century, the Miskito people organized through activism to advocate for policies promoting political, social, and cultural assimilation. Specifically for the Miskito people, the activism in response to indigenismo policies encompassed a movement promoting integration and civil rights. Prior to the notable activist movements of the 1980s, the Miskito prioritized integration into state political structures and civil rights under the liberal Nicaraguan constitution. The movements of the 1960s and 1970s proved largely integrationist and was led by completely separate leaders than those after the Sandinista Revolution.

As early as the 1950s, Miskitos worked to confront the large and small injustices their community faced. By integrating into the Nicaraguan state via land titles, the Miskito were able to participate in the larger economy of the country and hold the state accountable to their local interests. This larger political participation fed into the Miskito locales, affording local representatives more power regarding territorial disputes in general, allowing for increased political involvement from Miskitos not directly tied to political processes.

Regarding indigenismo, Nicaraguan officials viewed these policies as an opportunity to become more involved with the Mosquito Coast, which had previously been largely left alone. Miskito people were able to claim benefits at a larger governmental level that previously did not exist including technical training in medicine and agriculture, as well as increased access to education and more schoolhouses. For the Miskito in Nicaragua, indigenismo represented an opportunity to increase rapport with the government and greater access to previously inaccessible state resources rather than an affront to ethnic identity.

Rulers

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Gender Roles

(already written by previous wiki user)