time-keeper of the buses leaving managua for other parts of the country.
Conmemorative call for THE 350 ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE MOSQUITO NATION .
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many salesmen of farmacy products - of doubtful origin - trying to sell on the buses of managua.
About the Miskito People:
The
MiskitoPeople are Native American people in Central America. Their territory expands from Cape Cameron, Hondurous, to Rio Grande, Nicaragua along the Miskito Coast ("La Mosquitia"). [4]This area located on the northeast coast of Nicaragua and the east coast of Honduras and is made up of lowland coastal areas, savannas and rain forests. In order to survive they live as farmers and fishermen in small villages of the lowland rainforset of Nicaragua and Honduras. [1]
The Miskito people most likely belonged to the
Chibchaculture of northern South America. They are believed to have descended from a group of Sumu who migrated northward across what is now called Panama. [1] As the Spanish settled in Nicaragua this people groupe retreated more and more towards the lowland jungles and swamps of the coast where they found refuge from the aggressive Spaniards and eventually spread into neighboring Honduras. [5]
In the 1600s escaped and shipwrecked slaves sought refuge and intermarried with the Miskito people. As a result there are very few pure-blooded
Miskitotoday. [4] However, the Miskito people have preserved thier language and much of thier culture. [2]
It was not untill the 1700s that the Miskito people began to have significant contact with outsiders. As the English gained greater control of the Caribbean, traders and settlers began to establish contact with the indigenous people. As they obtained muskets and ammunition from the English, they were able to conquer smaller and weaker tribes in the area. The name “Miskito” may have derived from various spellings of “musketeros” meaning “the people with
muskets”. This mixed native-African society became the Miskito people of today. [5]
The British made friends of the Miskito people encouraging them to raid Spanish settlements in the south and Indian settlements in the interior, selling their captives as slaves. In an attempt to better manage them the British appointed a Miskito king and set a kingdom they could control. The British maintained control over the Miskito territory even in the 1830’s when the Central American colonies gained independence from Spain. In 1860, the Nicaragua government signed a treaty with Great Britain to control a Miskito reserve. This reserve was governed by English speaking Creoles from the southren part of the reserve. [1]
During the late 1800s and early 1900s the United States began to have more direct influence over the Miskito. British and US interests established banana plantations and logging industries. These plantations and industries provided jobs for the Miskito people and caused them to become accustomed to flour, sugar, and western clothing. By 1940 the banana industry had ended because of a large-scale banana disease. As a result the Miskito people were forced to return to
subsistence farmingand poverty. [1]
In 1849, German Movarian missionaries came to the Miskito people. They first converted
English Creolepeople in the south. The Moravian church became the stabilizing economic, social, and political force throughout most of the region.
Until the 1979
Sandinistarevolution, the Nicaragua government relatively neglected the Miskito people. Conflict erupted when the Sandinista attempted to implement their socialist economic policies on the Atlantic coast. [1] Some of the Miskito people fled to Honduras and lead a resistance movement aligned with the US-backed
Contras. [3] If they did not flee or join the resistance movement the Miskito people were resettled by the Sandinista in the interior. In 1989 the fighting was finally over and most of the Miskito returned to rebuild their villages. Overall, the Miskito people have never truly felt controlled by the Nicaraguan government. In fact, many Miskito today don't even consider themselves Nicaraguans. [4] Today, the Miskito have faced several years of bad harvest and are facing the worst situation of poverty since the loss of the banana industry.
Life style of the Miskito People
Miskito villages range from 3 to over 600 houses and are located along the jungle river basins. They have no streets and houses are scattered without order. Families are linked maternally and tend to live in close proximity. [1] The villages all have a bathing spot along a creek and a docking area for communal dugouts. The idea of personal property is forgein to these people; land is not owned or sold except for in the larger commercial towns. Peurto Cabezas and Puerto Lempira are two major towns that serve as communication centers with the outside world. [4]
Houses built out of split bamboo or sawed lumber with roofs of thatch or riged metal are placed up on pilings. People sit, eat and sleep on the floor. Some homes have hammocks to sleep on, but this is rare. The houses have no internal walls or furniture. A cookhouse is usually attached to the primary house by a wooden walkway. [1]
The basic diet of the Miskito people is rice, beans, yucca, and banana. Fish, snails, and turtles are their source of meat. Coffee and
cacaoare raised in small amounts. A typical drink is made of boiled bananas and
plantains. This drink is a reliable and cheap food source when there are no crops. [1]
The Miskito people have adapted to European style clothing. Women wear simple dresses and men wear pants and a shirt. Children, especially boys, play naked until they are 5 or 6 years old. Most people go barefoot around the house or village and rubber boots
are only used for working in fields. [1]
Modern health care is non-existent for most Miskitos. Only limited medicines such as aspirin and basic antibiotics can be purchased in some community stores. There is one regional hospital in Puerto Cabezas and two small clinics in Waspam and Puerto Lempira. [1] People have to walk and travel by trucks for days to reach these medical facilities. The lack of health care is a major difficulty these people face. As a result infanct mortality is one of the highest in Central America and life expectancy is one of the lowest. [2]
Drinking water is drawn from the creek or river, usually above washing and bathing sites. Clean water is not available in any villages. Few houses have latrines which contributes to poor health conditions. [1]
Governmental schools exist only in larger communities. [2] The government attempts to provide a bilingual education. All children must learn Spanish by the third grade. Secondary education is available only in four larger population centers. Classes are larger and teachers are poorly trained. Despite these opportunites, many children do not attend due to financial hardships. [1]
Historically the Miskito poepled once hunted green turtles in teh context of a traditional subsistene economy. [4] They combined turtle fishing with hunting, agriculture, gather, and fishing. However, this hunting of turtles along with game hunting in general is becoming less common. Many Miskito are begining to work in the mines and in the lumber industry. [1] They continue to raise crops in order to sell or trade them for other goods. The agricultural plts are tended by women while the men clear the plots ahd hlep with the planting and harvesting. The men also have traditionally been the hunters and today are the ones taking labor jobs. [1]
Worldview [2]
The Miskito people were origionally animistic in their belief system (belief in the exitence of spirits separable from bodies and a belief system that attributes conscious life to object in a phenomena of nature or to inanmiate objects). The Moravians and Catholics introduce Christianity to them in the 1800's. However, the Miskito people have learned to adapt their worldview without significantly changing it. They believe in various kinds of super-natural beings that affect things such as a sense of well-being, crop failures, bad hunting, capsized boats, and other accidents.
When the Miskito people die they travel to pura yapti by crossing a great river in a pipanti propelled by bullfrogs or toads. Because of this belief they do not harm toads. There are many different spirits that the Miskito people believe in. However, these spirits only affect the Miskito people. They believe that the missionaries receive protection from these spirits from their particular owner spirit, God.
The world view of the Miskito people has been modified by Christian influence by changing the way that they understand and respond to the traditional beliefs. Chrisitanity and the Miskito belief systems have several parallels that the Moravians and Catholics exploited when translating unfamiliar concepts to the Miskito people. This facililated the Miskitos acceptance of Christianity but also created a syncretistic worldview. This worldview is Christiantiy that has been adapted to fit thier previous pagan culture and to reconcile maintaining many of their former practices.
two sales-girls of home-made owen-made corn-products at bus-terminal of nueva guinea raas. yn4
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