The Tawira Miskito are indigenous peoples of
Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
. They are a band of
Miskito people
The Miskitos are a native people in Central America. Their territory extends from Cape Camarón, Honduras, to Río Grande de Matagalpa, Nicaragua, along the Mosquito Coast, in the Western Caribbean Zone. Their population is estimated at 700,000 ...
and live in the southern part of the
Mosquito Coast
The Mosquito Coast, also known as the Mosquitia or Mosquito Shore, historically included the area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. It formed part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskit ...
. They are also known as Tauira and Tawira. They speak the
Tawira language.
The Tawira are related to the
Miskito Sambu The Miskito Sambu, also known simply as the Miskito, are an ethnic group of mixed cultural ancestry (African- Indigenous American) occupying a portion of the Caribbean coast of Central America (particularly on the Atlantic coasts of Honduras and Ni ...
, who intermarried with Africans who had shipwrecked on the coast in the mid-seventeenth century. The term is unattested before the early nineteenth century, though it may have come into existence before that time.
[Karl Offen, "The Sambu and Tawira Miskito: Origins and Geography of Intra-Miskitu Differentiation in Eastern Nicaragua and Honduras," ''Ethnohistory'' 49/2 (2002): 319-72.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tawira Miskito
Miskito