Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka (YATAMA) -or Sons of Mother Earth- is an indigenous party from Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast. YATAMA has its roots in the MISURASATA (Miskito, Sumo and Rama Sandinista Alliance) and the MISURA\/KISAN (Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity) organisations. In 1988, in response to the Central American peace accords, the remnants of MISURASATA and MISURA\/KISAN in Honduras, Costa Rica and Miami reorganized as YATAMA, united the traditional Miskitu leaders Steadman Fagoth and Brooklyn Rivera.<\/p>\n
YATAMA has participated in several regional elections since 1990. Its best electoral result was in the autonomous elections on the Caribbean Coast in 1990 where they won 26 Regional Council member seat (out of 90).<\/p>\n
BRIEF PROFILE OF THE PEOPLES OF YAPTI TASBA<\/p>\n
The eastern part of Nicaragua along the Caribbean,
\n which is commonly known as the Atlantic Coast, is inhabited
\n by various native peoples and other populations of the
\n country. The Miskito, Sumo and Rama are the three indigenous
\n peoples found on the Atlantic Coast. Others in the region
\n include the creoles, garifunas and ladinos. The peoples of
\n the Atlantic coast, each of which has its own culture,
\n language and traditions, live in harmony. Their traditional
\n territory is Yapti Tasba (Mother Earth), which was passed to
\n them over millennia from their ancestors.<\/p>\n
Yapti Tasba makes up approximately 38% of Nicaragua’s
\n territory and is inhabited by around 10% of the country’s
\n population. The indigenous peoples of the region comprise a
\n population of some 145,000 people who live primarily in
\n their traditional communities along the rivers, lagoons and
\n coastal areas of the region. The creole population is around
\n 40,000 Caribbean-English speaking people who live primarily
\n in the urban centers in the southern part of the region.<\/p>\n
The Garifuna (caribe) live in four communities located
\n near Pearl Lagoon and are estimated at around 1,500 people.
\n The ladino population totals some 80,000 inhabitants, is
\n part of the Nicaraguan Mestizo majority and is concentrated
\n primarily in the mining areas and in Bluefields.<\/p>\n
Yapti Tasba has had an historical development entirely
\n different from that of the rest of Nicaragua, a factor which
\n today is manifest by its own cultural, social, economic and
\n ideological reality. The territory and the indigenous
\n peoples were not submitted to European colonization during
\n the 16th through 19th centuries. Instead, the indigenous
\n peoples enjoyed their self-determination until 1860, when
\n external forces arbitrarily reduced their territory to a
\n reserve with political and economic autonomous status. But
\n even that status was abolished entirely as a result of
\n military intervention on the part of forces from Managua in
\n 1894.<\/p>\n
From that time on, the indigenous peoples and the
\n creoles have been subjected to a long period of
\n marginalization, ethnocide and internal colonization by the
\n liberal-conservative governments and the Somocista
\n dictatorship. Furthermore, the natural resources of the
\n Yapti Tasba were pillaged during the irrational exploitation
\n by North American transnational companies acting in concert
\n with Managua governments.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, our peoples always have resisted all
\n colonial or neocolonial domination or submission, thus
\n preserving their survival and historical continuity as the
\n original peoples of the region. In 1973, ALPROMISU was
\n founded as the first ethno-political movement for the
\n defense and the promotion of the indigenous rights of the
\n Miskito and Sumo to their lands and resources.<\/p>\n
With the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in 1979,
\n the peoples of the Yapti Tasba enthusiastically and with
\n great expectation participated in the new national process,
\n promoting their collective aspirations. In November of the
\n same year, ALPROMISU became MISURASATA with the inclusion of
\n the Rama and the Sandinista term within the name of the
\n organization. Although at the beginning it appeared to
\n tolerate MISURASATA, the Sandinista Front from the start was
\n in fact intent on substituting itself through mass
\n organizations.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Sandinistas were not sensitive to the
\n aspirations of our people nor to the nature of our society.
\n Instead, they reacted violently against the just claims of
\n the indigenous peoples in Yapti Tasba. Nonetheless, during
\n the first eighteen months the Sandinista government was in
\n power the native peoples participated in various aspects of
\n the revolutionary process of the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka (YATAMA) -or Sons of Mother Earth- is an indigenous party from Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast. YATAMA has its roots in the MISURASATA (Miskito, Sumo and Rama Sandinista Alliance) and the MISURA\/KISAN (Nicaraguan Coast Indian Unity) organisations. In 1988, in response to the Central American peace accords, the remnants of MISURASATA and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[10,11,12,26],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}