The evidence provided by an analysis of the Misumalpan language family, to which the Mayangna languages belong and which also includes Miskitu and the extinct Matagalpan and Cacaopera tongues once spoken in the Nicaraguan highlands and southern El Salvador, indicates the continuous presence of these groups in the region from around 2000BC.
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The language spoken around Rosita and Bonanza in the north-eastern part of the RAAN, and today known as 'Mayangna', is in fact two closely related dialects, Twahka and Panamahka, while the people of Karawala in the RAAS, who were also formerly regarded as 'Sumu', speak a closely related sister-language called Ulwa.
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However, problems with the land continue, and in Wasakin (a Mayangna community near Rosita) a state of violent confrontation between the Mayangna and invading Mestizos has led to the killing of a rancher and the subsequent murder of two young Indians.