Book on
Honduran Moskitia by a Miskito Indian Author Published
By Wendy
Griffin
Relatively
little work has been done on the oralhistory of the Honduran Mosquitia because
to research it, the researcher would have to speak Miskito. Yet the Honduran
government and Honduran historians have included little about the Moskitia in their
written records. So without oral history, much of the past of the Department of
Gracias a Dios (La Mosquitia) remains a mystery.
To fill
this void, Honduran Miskito teacher Scott Wood Ronas has written a book to make
the history and culture of the Honduran Mosquitia accesible. La Moskitia Desde
adentro Aspetos Historicos, Antropológicos, y Culturales (The Mosquitia from
the Inside Historical, Anthropological, and Cultural Aspects) was published in
2013 by SCAD (Secretaría de Cultura, Artes y Deportes), better known as the Ministry
of Culture of the Honduran government.
It was such
an innovation that the Honduran Ministry of Culture would publish a book about
the Moskitia by a Honduran Miskito Indian that the book presentation was held
as part of the historic meeting of Honduran President Pepe Lobo and his Council
of Ministers in Puerto Lempira, departmental capital of the Honduran Mosquitia. The book was
published together with another book by a Miskito Indian author “La
LenguaMiskitu Un primer studio grammatical complete y etimológico de la Lengua
Miskitu en Honduras” by Erasmo Ordoñes Claros. The book begins with a forward
by the Minister of Culture Dr. Tulio Mariano Gonzalez, a Garifuna.
Scott Wood
includes many interesting aspects of the Miskito culture in this book. For
example, he has drawings of the Miskito crafts and their name in Miskito. He also explains the different kinds
ofhealers among theMiskitos and how they diagnose and treat illnesses.
He also
explains Miskito beliefs about the soul, death, and what happens after death
among Miskito Indians. The ceremonies done by the sukya or shaman and the Miskito
people at the time of illness, death and afterwards are also explained.
He tries to
include the names and years of Miskito
kings, even kings historians have not usually included. For example from oralhistory he recovered the story of
King Andreu and the reason President Zelaya of Nicaragua was so angry at the
Miskitos that he invaded the Mosquitia and incorporated it into Nicaragua as
the Department of Zelaya. Scott Wood has photographs of the Miskito kings taken
from the Miskito language history of theMosquitia by Capuchin priest Father
Gregorio Smutko.
For most
people studying the Mosquitia, they include the Miskitos as a unitary group.
Scott Wood explains the divisions among the Miskitos like the Tawira or unmixed
Miskitos, the Sambos, and the Mam.
He also
tells what the Miskitos remember about another people in the Mosquitia—the Rah.
These were very warlike Indians who are famous for having eaten people. In the
story of a mixed Miskito-Rah couple the Rah grandparents eat their mixed
Rah-Miskito grandchild. The couple escapes. The Miskito king chooses to punish
the Rah and sends a vine that is poisonous to poison the water supply of the
Rah town near Raiti Tara. The Rah of that community died except the couple and
the Rah are buried at Raiti Tara (Big Cementary in Miskito). Erasmo Ordóñes
traces his origins back to that mixed Rah Miskito couple that escaped. There
were other Rah communities and some Miskitos are of mixed Rah-Miskito descent.
Scott Wood includes 4 Rah words with Spanish translation and a description of a
Rah father of a mixed Rah-Miskito man.
At the end
of the book, he includes information on the industries which have existed in
the Mosquitia like logging, bananas, mining, animal skins, shrimp fishing and
lobster diving. Lobster diving is particularly painful as he notes how many
dead and paralyzed divers there are and how many Miskitos work in the industry.
Although the fishing boats and lobster boats often fish off the Coast of the
Mosquitia, they do not pay any taxes in the Mosquitia. The fees they pay for
fishing licenses are paid in the Bay Islands. Attempts by the Honduran Miskitos
to get lobster diving included in the Honduran Labor Code (Codigo de Trabajo)
have failed.
He ends the
book noting that the Mosquitia has the qualities where it would make sense to
grant autonomy to the Mosquitia. He hopes that MASTA, the ethnic federation of
the Miskitos will fight for autonomy. The Honduran government has reacted
negatively when in the past the Miskitos have mentioned the possibility of
autonomy for the Honduran Mosquitia.
The author
of the book has worked in bilingual intercultural education for Miskitos since
before the first pilot project was approved in 1992. He is currently the
sub-director of the Sub-Direction of Bilingual Multicultural education of the Ministry
of Education in Tegucigalpa. He is the author of other books like Modules to learn
the Miskito language and the first grade book for learning to read and write in
Miskito Yabul Raya.
In an interview
Scott Wood said that he had read the chapter about the Miskitos in Salvadoran
anthropologist Ramon Rivas’s book and it made him angry because of erroneous
information. He asked how he could refute the wrong information in the book. He
was counselled that instead of trying to refute Rivas’s book, the most widely
distributed book on Honduran Indians and Garifunas, he should write his own
book with more correct information. So he did and the well written,
informative, interesting book La Moskitia Desde adentro is the result.
According
to WorldCat, no US or Canadian university libraries currently own this book.
