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The Miskitos
The Miskitos are supposed to have their origin in the rainforests of
South America, this is concluded from their language which is very similar
to the dialects of the Chibcha family. The name Miskitos could have been
derived from the word "mosquete", the guns of the British settlers.
The details of their history is not very clear; of course the Miskitos
themselves claim that they have been Miskitos in the region for ever,
but ethnologists and anthropologists have found evidences that the Miskitos
are a mixture of local habitants like Tawahkas with European and African
settlers, having their origin in the 17 century.
The scientist Linda Newson confirmed that historical documents or reports
of the time before the Spanish arrival are unknown. The first document
involving the Miskitos is dated from the year 1672, where a pirate named
Exquemelin described a small community of some 1600 persons. Nine years
later another pirate found a group of Miskitos with only some 100 men.
They lived in the region of cape "Gracias a Dios" on the border
between Honduras and Nicaragua. The diaries of the Nicaraguan archbishop
could bring light into the darkness of the evolution of the Miskitos.
He described the mixture of the Tawahka Indians with black shipwrecked
slaves in the coral reefs of the Miskito Keys since the year 1641. The
documents are telling the following:
"In 1641 a ship with black slaves got lost on the north coast between
the mouth of the San Juan River, province of Nicaragua, and the town of
Trujillo, province Honduras... a third of the blacks returned, meanwhile
the rest decided to enter the forest fighting with the vegetation, illnesses
and Caribbean warriors, which defended their land in a bloody and brutal
war. The blacks defeated the Caribbean local tribes which had to move
back into the forests of Segovia and Chontales... and they are enemies
since those days until now... With the women of the defeated Indians the
blacks started to have children initiating a new tribe which was called
by themselves Zambos. Zambos where descendents of Africans and local habitants."
Biological tests are supporting the theory of the archbishop comparing
the blood groups of the Tawahkas and the Miskitos on the Rio Coco Segovia
(the actual border between Honduras and Nicaragua). The anthropologists
Matson and Swanson proofed that all Tawahkas do have the bloodgroup "0".
Among the Miskitos some 90 % do have "0", the rest are tested
as type "A" and "B".
In fact, a lot of arguments are confirming the results if the blood group
investigations. The traditions and languages of Miskitos and Tawahkas
are very similar. According to the legends of the Tawahkas, the fathers
Mai-Sahana and Yapti-Misri were born out of a big stone in the Patuca
River. They formed the Miskitos, the Tawahkas and the Ohlawas. The language
of the Miskitos is very similar to the language of the Tawahkas. But meanwhile
the Tawahkas developed strong local dialects from town to town, the Miskitos
all use the same language, another sign that the Miskitos are much younger
and derived from the Tawahkas. In difference to the Tawahkas, the Miskitos
took over a lot of words of the Spanish and the English language, without
loosing the African words. All those are indices that the Miskitos derived
from the Tawahkas.
Starting from Cape "Gracias a Dios " the Zambo Miskitos extended
themselves along the coast of Honduras and pushed the local Indian groups
of Pech and Tawahka out of their territory. Described in the year 1774
the Miskitos where a numerous tribe found on the Cape Gracias a Dios,
the Rio Coco Segovia, and the village of Sandy Bay domiciling their king.
The composition of the Miskitos characterized by local differences. In
the north and the west dominated the black Miskitos, influenced by blacks
coming from other places of the coast. Meanwhile in the south the appearance
of the local tribes was stronger. Scientists are concluding from this
observation to the exact place where the blacks landed after have been
shipwrecked.
The Miskitos initiated contacts with British pirates and traders operating
in the Caribbean Sea during the 17 century. The Miskitos traded with legal
and illegal materials as for example firearms and indian slaves caught
in the interior of the country (normally Indians from the tribes Tawahka
and Pech). This could be an explanation about why the relationship between
Miskitos and the Tawahkas and Pech was bad. The government of the Miskitos
was a kingdom, the king was the leader and holder of power and he represented
the Miskito interests to the foreigners. The king was the chief of the
army and the highest judge. The British respected the position of the
Miskito King and celebrated his coronation in one of their headquarters
in the region, Belize or Jamaica. In the reality, the king had no power
over the politics in his own territory, he was a marionette of the British
crown to maintain the local population calm. The British never tried to
involve themselves in the local Miskito affairs and left the impression
of complete autonomy of the Miskito region, the local life never changed
because of the British presence, and finally the Miskitos were satisfied
with their king and their life. During the mid 19th century some changes
occurred in the Moskitia: the British changed the capital of the Miskitos
from Sandy Bay to Bluefields, capital of the department Moskitia. The
political development of the Miskitos formed more and more a state which
was strongly influenced by British businessmen, settlers and politicians.
The Miskitos changed their life from warriors to traders of indian rubber,
fish and wood, helped by missioners of the German Evangelian Moravian
church since 1849. Also, the missioners achieved the production of the
bible in the Miskito language, saving this language for the next generations.
Actually, the Miskitos are the biggest ethnic group of the Moskitia with
some 30000 people.
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