Between Two Fires: Mayangna Indians in Post‐Revolutionary Nicaragua, 1979–1990

The predominant Mayangna narrative of the Nicaraguan Civil War holds that the Miskitu tricked them into joining the conflict. However, I argue here that the Mayangna leadership and the Sandinista government were also responsible, as Sandinista denial of the importance of ethnic difference in Nicaragua allowed Miskitu nationalists, using the language of religion, to co‐opt Mayangna leaders, while subsequent Sandinista violence turned Mayangna civilians against the revolution. Accusations of trickery stem from later Mayangna disillusion with the war and from problems with the autonomous political system set up in its wake, which encourages the Mayangna to underplay the role of their own leaders and the Sandinista government in embroiling them in the conflict. This one‐sided narrative, however, increasingly defines Mayangna interpretations of their very identity as a people.