“that we poor Indians may receive our rights:”

This article examines how U.S. strategic interests in Central America motivated by a fierce anti-British sentiment and the imperative to become the regional power in North America led Washington to destroy the Miskito Kingdom, a two and half centuries old, stable, and prosperous indigenous state. I discuss Nicaragua’s ongoing—internationally ignored—genocide of the Miskito Indians and the accompanying exploitation and environmental devastation of their lands. I conclude by urging the U.S. and the U.N. to immediately enforce international laws prohibiting the crime of genocide and supporting the right of national self-determination that havebeen applied to East Timor and Kosovo to Nicaragua to save the Miskito people and to restore their political independence.