22 To refer to the Mayagna as a community, one has to see everything as a process. Currently it is a group with its own leadership, its own form of social organization, and it recognizes itself as an indigenous community. As regards current land tenure in the Awas Tingni Community, the witness believes that first one must talk about history. The Community has identified itself as a Mayagna community, but gradually, through demographic growth and also continuous communication with people from other areas, it came to identify itself as an independent community, around its spiritual leaders called caciques. In this way it took shape and strengthened its feeling of community, with its own limits and boundaries. There are two Miskito communities in the territory of Awas Tingni, as can be seen on the map. One of them is Esperanza, which was formed in two stages: in 1971, after the war between Honduras and Nicaragua, and in 1972 after the hurricane that year, when other communities arrived. One of the five communities established in the territory is called Tasba Raya, Esperanza, and it is located toward the north of the Wawa River. They arrived there upon orders by the State at that time, and they were accepted by the Awas Tingni Community. The other, called Yapu Muscana, rather than a community was merely a refuge; it was a Miskito family which had established itself independently on the southern side. There is no evidence that those communities were there before the Awas Tingni Community; instead, a member of Francia Sirpi, which is the community neighboring Esperanza, stated to the Witness that Awas Tingni arrived there before. Currently there are some conflicts with neighboring communities, especially due to the presence and lack of understanding with the SOLCARSA firm, as members of neighboring communities want to take over their lands, with the idea that those who own the land will benefit from the works to be undertaken. A history and an ancestral possession has been constructed with indigenous people from different ethnic groups. The Community’s perception of its boundaries has been strengthened through interactions with their neighbors. The only evidence that can be used to determine the existence of the Community before 1990 is oral tradition. There are research studies on the history of the Community, and some experts were also consulted at Harvard University, in the United States, and in Central America, and no data were found that contradicted the oral tradition on which his study is based. Forms of land use in the Awas Tingni Community are based on a communal system, in which there is usufruct by individuals, which means that no one can sell or rent this territory to people outside the Community. However, within the Community, certain individuals use a plot, a certain area, year after year. In this way, the Community respects usufruct rights but does not allow this right to be abused. This usufruct right is often acquired through inheritance, passed on from one generation to the next, but mainly it is granted by Community consensus. It can also be transferred from one family to another. Those who benefit from this usufruct have the possibility of excluding other members of the community from the use of that land, the utilization of those resources. The hills located in the territory of the Community are very important. The “spirits of the mountain”, jefes del monte, which in Mayagna are called “Asangpas Muigeni”, live in them, and it is they who control the animals throughout that region. To make use of those animals, one must have a special relationship with the spirits.