THE MISKITO PEOPLE

The Miskito people are a traditional amerindian-african mestizo people who live as subsistence farmers and fishermen in small villages of the lowland rain forest of Nicaragua and Honduras. The Miskito people live across a large area known as The Mosquito Coast (“La Mosquitia”), which is located on the northeast coast of Nicaragua and the east coast of Honduras. This area covers over 32,500 square miles extending from the Tinto River in Honduras to the San Juan River in Nicaragua. It is made up of lowland coastal areas, savannas and rain forests.

The two major towns of Puerto Cabezas and Puerto Lempira serve as communication centers with the outside world. Miskito villages are made of 15 to 200 houses and are located along the jungle river basins throughout the Caribbean coast. The Coco River (Wangki), one of the largest rivers of Central America, is considered to be the heartland of the Miskito people.

The Miskito people live in close family units in small autonomous villages. Each village has a leader who serves to settle differences. There is little sense of personal property and land is not owned or sold except in the larger commercial towns. Families plant common field crops of rice, beans, and yucca and gather native grown bananas and plantains. There are government schools in larger villages and Spanish is taught after the third grade. Because of economic hardships many children do not attend school. Health care is limited or non existent in most villages. Infant mortality is one of the highest in Central America and life expectancy one of the lowest.

The Miskitos were originally animistic in their religious practices. In spite of several centuries of exposure to Christianity many people have retained their animistic practices. Village shamans serve as healers, diviners and exorcists. The Moravian and Catholic churches have impacted the Miskito culture for over a 100 years, but their religious practices have resulted in a syncretistic Christo-animism.

For more information on the Miskito People check out Wikipedia.