Abstract:

The Mayangna Nation is centered in north central Nicaragua. Its communities are in and around the large Bosawas preserve. Some communities lie further east and north in Nicaragua. There are four dialects of the Mayangna language that are spoken in the largest concentration, and the three others spoken in different communities. The nation consists of about 25,000 people. The capital city is Musawas, and the administrative center is in Rosita.

Early in its history the United Nations (UN) took the position that all Indigenous peoples were entitled to their lands and education. In Nicaragua this has meant the construction of schools in Mayangna, and other indigenous areas by the Nicaraguan government. These schools look like schools one might find in any Eurocentric community and are not representative of the culture of the young people who attend them. The Ministry of Education (MINED) monitors the schools of the Mayangna Nation closely to ensure they are following the national curriculum in Spanish.

Challenges to the Mayangna nation and its effort to continue are many in the education system alone. The schools do not represent the culture in any visible way. They are not raised off the ground on stilts like most other Mayangna structures, they are not made of native materials, and in some cases, you cannot see the forest home or the rivers and lakes around which the culture is built. School attendance is mandatory as is typical in education. However, it was the time in the forest with the elders that gave the Mayangna their knowledge of nature. The playgrounds are also Eurocentric and do not use any cultural items or artifacts. It is as if their culture does not exist.

A young Maynagnan wrestles with the resulting internal conflicts: Should I be Mayangna? Should I be Nicaraguan? Should I study Spanish and sublimate my nation’s language in order to pass the university entrance test? If I do make it to the university and win a scholarship, what happens to my place in Mayangna culture, and what happens to my community when I am not there? Should I try for the most prominent national university, or one of the two regional universities created for the Indigenous peoples and other groups like Creoles and the Garifuna of the Caribbean coast.

Life becomes complicated if these students do not want to study anthropology and use their own nation as their subject. How does the education they receive at the internationally accredited university, UNAN-Managua, relate to the Mayangna nation? What do they learn in medicine about the legendary medical plants of the Bosawas, home to the Mayangna? In the study of education what do they learn about running a bilingual classroom so students can maintain their Indigenous language while also becoming proficient in Spanish? What do you learn in law that will help you understand why the legal system lets people invade Mayangna lands to take valuable wood, to create cattle farms, to provide housing for the invasion of non-Mayangna peoples? In Chemistry, what do you learn to counteract the cyanide cand mercury that is killing the rivers of the nation as colonialists mining for gold increases? What can they study to help their nation and provide them a respectable living?

The Mayangna provide an opportunity to look at the question is it equity in terms of the larger culture. Or does equity imply looking at it through the eyes of the Indigenous culture. What is equity for young Indigenous people?

Keywords:

Mayangna, Indigenous education, Indigenous language, Indigenous school structures, Equity.