What is "walddeutsche"

Walddeutsche ( ("Forest Germans") or Taubdeutsche ("Deaf Germans"); ("deaf-mutes", a pun), the name for a group of people, mostly of German origin, who settled during the 14th-17th century on the territory of present-day Sanockie Pits, Poland, a region which was previously only sparsely inhabited because the land was difficult to farm.