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Concept
Mayangna people
Summary
The Mayangna (also known as Ulwa, Sumu or Sumo) are a people who live on the eastern coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras, an area commonly known as the Mosquito Coast. Their preferred autonym is Mayangna, as the name "Sumo" is a derogatory name historically used by the Miskito people. Their culture is closer to that of the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia than to the Mesoamerican cultures to the north. The Mayangna inhabited much of the Mosquito Coast in the 16th century. Since then, they have become more marginalized following the emergence of the Miskito as a regional power.
The Mayangna today are divided into the Panamahka, Tawahka and Ulwa ethno-linguistic subgroups. They live primarily in remote settlements on the rivers Coco, Waspuk, Pispis and Bocay in north-eastern Nicaragua, as well as on the Patuca across the border in Honduras and far to the south along the Río Grande de Matagalpa. The isolation of these communities has allowed the Mayagna to preserve their language and culture away from the assimilatory impulses of both the larger Miskito group, who live closer to the Atlantic coastline, and the ‘Spaniards’ (as the Mayangna still refer to the Spanish-speaking Mestizos who form the ethnic majority population of Nicaragua), who are for the most part confined to the larger towns in the region that the Mayangna inhabit.
The Ulwa community in Nicaragua is an integral part of the Mayagna, Panamahka, and Ulwa family. They are predominantly located in the Karawala settlement within the Rio Grande basin of Matagalpa. Established since 1853, this indigenous group holds great significance, comprising approximately 3500 individuals.
The evidence provided by an analysis of the Misumalpan language family, to which the Mayangna languages belong and which also includes Miskito and the extinct Matagalpan and Cacaopera tongues once spoken in the Nicaraguan highlands and southern El Salvador, indicates the continuous presence of these groups in the region from around 2000BC.
Official source
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