This article re-examines the armed Miskitu insurgency conducted against the Sandinista revolutionary

government on Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast (1981–1987) and discloses the problematic relationship that developed between Miskitu fighters and other non-indigenous, CIA-backed, armed, counter-revolutionary

groups, or Contras. Drawing on interview data, the article also demonstrates how the divergent actions of the two main Miskitu leaders, Steadman Fagoth Müller and Brooklyn Rivera Bryan, during the post-revolutionary period  have influenced contemporary memories of the Miskitu insurgency of the 1980s and the role played by these leaders in the conduct and nature of the conflict.