The Miskito are indigenous groups living on the eastern coasts of two Central American countries, Nicaragua and Honduras. The area is commonly known as the Atlantic or Miskito (also spelled Mosquito) Coast. “The Miskito are a mixed-race people resulting from intermarriage between escaped African slaves and other Amerindians” (Thomathus, 2009). In the seventeenth century, English traders and settlers in the area wanted help in their colonial rivalry with the Spanish. “They introduced the Miskito to guns and ammunition to get their assistance” (Floyed, 1990). The Miskito used these weapons to expand their territory, as well as to dominate the Sumu, demanding tribute (money) from them, and often capturing them for use as slaves. The persecuted Sumu ultimately retreated inland. The Sumu population declined sharply as a result of Spanish, British, and Miskito aggression and the spread of European diseases. The Miskito became the most important non-European population on the coast. From the mid-seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century, the Miskito prospered. “In the late nineteenth century, banana growers began bringing in black English-speaking laborers from Caribbean islands controlled by the British. These laborers (and their descendants) became known as Creoles, and replaced the Miskito as the area's dominant non-white group” (Marvin, 2009). The Miskito were relegated to a lower social status. In 1979, the Nicaraguan government tried to tighten its control over the native peoples of the Atlantic coast. The Miskito resisted and tried to form an antigovernment alliance among the native groups of the region. They gave the alliance the name Misura , combining the groups' names: Miskito, Sumu, and Rama (a small native group). The creation story of the Miskito people of Nicaragua began in the west and
highland areas where the Spanish settled, the indigenous population was almost completely wiped out by the rapid spread of new diseases brought by the Spaniards, for which the native population had no immunity, and the virtual enslavement of the remainder of the indigenous people. In the east, where the Europeans did not settle, most indigenous groups survived. The English, however, did introduce guns and ammunition to one of the local peoples, the Bawihka, who lived in northeast Nicaragua. “The Bawihka later intermarried with runaway slaves from Britain's Caribbean possessions, and the resulting population, with its access to superior weapons, began to expand its territory and push other indigenous groups into the interior. This Afro-indigenous group became known to the Europeans as Miskito, and the displaced survivors of their expansionist activities were called the Sumu” (Davidson, 2002).
Culture and Geography (pre-contact)
The Indigenous group of the Miskito obtained their cultural name by the name of the coast of which they live on. Miskito Coast, also spelled Mosquito is located on the coastal region of Nicaragua and Honduras. “It comprises a band approximately 40 miles (65 km) wide of lowland that skirts the Caribbean Sea for about 225 miles (360 km)” (Britannica, 2012). With the Miskito coast being situated in the coastal region of Nicaragua and Honduras the characteristics of the physical environment are of course very distinct from those in Canada. “The country covers a total area of 130,370 square kilometers (119,990 square kilometers of which is land area) and contains a diversity of climates and terrains. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: Pacific lowlands, the wetter, cooler central highlands, and the Caribbean lowlands” (HighBeam Research, 2010). Nicaraguan climate is tropical and warm. Their climate consists of two main seasons; dry and rainy. “Nicaragua
Climate features a dry season between January and June when the place do not get any rain and the scarcity of water leads to the drying of vegetation. Whereas the months of June and July witness heavy rainfall and the surrounding turns green and start blossoming. The months between August and September features a tropical downpour once in a day. The hottest months of the Climate at Nicaragua are March, April and May” (Global Edge, 2009). Moskito people rely on resources found in their surrounding areas. The Mosquito Coast is a very resource rich area, because of living on the Sea they are traditionally and currently known for: skillful fishing, large amounts of lobster, agriculture and hunting. They also have resources surrounding them as they live on the coast of the ocean in parts of Nicaragua and Honduras. Indigenous Miskito people rely heavily on lobster as a food resource as well as a source of income. “ In Nicaragua, it has been estimated that commercial lobster diving employs over 5,000 people and affects the livelihoods of 50,000 men, women and children” (Nomading, 2012). Miskito people use the resources they obtain and deliver them to their homes so they can begin to use the resources as a source of food. “Miskito houses are typically wooden, split-bamboo, or post-and-pole structures. Roofs are thatched or corrugated tin, and floors are made of board, split bamboo, or palm branches. They mostly consist of one room, although some have interior division and generally have windows and doors. Instead of having a foundation, houses are usually raised several feet or meters off the ground on posts’’ (Culture Today, 2011). Miskito people boil and cook their obtained resources with a fire that they conduct themselves. “Foods of the Miskito people include a diet of mostly boiled fish and bananas. On their small plots of cleared land, the Miskito tribes grow rice, beans, cassava, and bananas” (Stritch Edu, 2008). To obtain lobster and develop a source of income, Miskito people have developed tools
and technologies to further increase their amount of catching’s as well as making it easier for them. “Since 1960, the Miskito have used breath-hold diving techniques to harvest lobsters as their primary source of income” (Jameson, 2010). These techniques are effective as they save the divers from drowning as well as increase profit by enabling Miskito to obtain resource. The Miskito’s assumed an active intermediary role in the trade relations with Indian groups in Central America; but they also gained profits from slave hunting, selling slaves to Jamaican sugar plantations. “During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Miskito flourished as middlemen between interior Sumu and English traders. The Miskito also became feared slave raiders throughout much of eastern and interior Central America during the period when Indian slaves were bought by English plantation owners in Jamaica. The Miskito have always eagerly participated in trade with Europeans, exchanging coastal raw materials for manufactured goods. They have readily adopted English styles of clothing, home furnishings, foods, tools, and weapons” (Richardson, 2003).The Miskito people have their own language, traditions, lifestyle, and customs that culminate into a special type of culture. They do not essentially have a permanent leader or government. The Miskito people are a minority ethnic group of people in Nicaragua. They have been oppressed, misused, and deceived by their government and others. Because of these experiences, “they have grown to mistrust outsiders and the larger community particularly the government authority figures that rule the rest of the country” (Porier, 2005).
