NON-CHRISTIAN TRIBE PROBLEMS
And now let us try to gain a clear appreciation of some of the problems
actually presented by the existence of the non-Christian peoples of
the Philippines.
They belong to twenty-seven tribes at the most. Probably this number
will ultimately be somewhat further reduced. The number of dialects
spoken is greatly in excess of the number of tribes, as the people
of a single tribe sometimes speak three or four well-marked dialects.
The tribes are divided between two wholly distinct races, to wit,
Negritos and Malays.
The Negritos are of very low mentality and are incapable of any
considerable degree of civilization. Many of them are kept in a
state of abject peonage, and not a few are held in actual slavery, by
their Christian Filipino neighbours. In revenge for the abuses which
they suffer they are prone to commit criminal acts, and the problem
which they present resolves itself into protecting them from their
neighbours and their neighbours from them. The latter thing would be
easy enough if the former were practicable, but unfortunately their
neighbours cannot be persuaded to let them alone, and never do it
except under compulsion.
The people of all the Malay non-Christian tribes, with the exception
of certain Negrito mestizos, are undoubtedly capable of attaining to
a fairly high degree of civilization. Physically and, in my opinion,
mentally the people of several of the hill tribes are decidedly
superior to their lowland Filipino neighbours, who have degenerated
to some extent as a result of less favourable climatic conditions
and other causes.
In social development these Malay tribes vary from the semi-nomadic
Mangyans of Mindoro to the highly civilized Tingians of Abra, who
are in many ways superior to the Ilocanos with whom they live in
close contact. Some of these tribes, like the Benguet-Lepanto Igorots
and the Tingians, are peaceful agriculturists; others, like the wild
Tingians of Apayao, the Kalingas, the Bontoc Igorots, the Ifugaos, the
Ilongots, the Manobos and the Mandayas, are, or recently have been,
fierce fighters prone to indulge in such customs as the taking of
human heads for war trophies, or even the making of human sacrifices
to appease their heathen divinities.
The Moros, who are numerically stronger than are the people of
any other one tribe, stand in a class by themselves on account of
their strong adherence to the Mohammedan faith and their inclination
to propagate it by the sword. Who would hold them in check if the
Americans were to go? Certainly not the Filipinos. They have never
been able to do it in the past, and they cannot do it now.
All the non-Christian tribes have two things in common, their
unwillingness to accept the Christian faith and their hatred of
the several Filipino peoples who profess it. Their animosity is
readily understood when it is remembered that their ancestors
and they themselves have suffered grievous wrongs at the hands
of the Filipinos. In spite of all protestations to the contrary,
the Filipinos are absolutely without sympathy for the non-Christian
peoples, and have never voluntarily done anything for them, but on
the contrary have shamelessly exploited them whenever opportunity has
offered. They have never of themselves originated one single important
measure for the benefit of their non-Christian neighbours, and their
attitude toward the measures which have been originated by Americans
has always been one of active or passive opposition. Their real belief
as to what should be done with the wild people is that they should be
used if they can be made useful, but should be exterminated if they
become troublesome. Governor Pablo Guzman, of Cagayan, actually said
to me that the best thing to do with the wild people of Apayao, then
supposed to number fifty-three thousand, might be to kill them all.
Americans have adopted a firm but kindly policy in dealing with
the non-Christian tribes and have met with extraordinary success in
winning their good-will and weaning them from the worst of their evil
customs. Even with those of the Moros who live outside of the island
of Joló considerable progress has been made. Head-hunting has been
abolished among the Ifugaos, Igorots and Kalingas with an ease which
was wholly unanticipated.
In all work for the wild people the attitude of governors and
lieutenant-governors has proved to be a matter of fundamental
importance. The problem in each province or subprovince has been a
one-man problem. He who would succeed in handling wild men must be
absolutely fearless, for if he is not, they are quick to discover
the fact and to take advantage of it. He must protect his people
from injustice and oppression, or they will lose faith in him. He
must have a genuinely friendly feeling toward them, and must bear
them no ill will even when they misbehave. They will not object to
severe punishment when they know that it is deserved, but after being
punished feel that the slate has been wiped clean, and that they are
making a fresh start. They believe in letting by-gones be by-gones,
and their officials should meet them half way in this.
The following occurrence illustrates my point. Before all
the settlements of Ifugao had been brought under control,
Lieutenant-Governor Gallman had a headman acting as a policeman, who
rendered invaluable service and was allowed to carry a gun. No one
dreamed that he would ever be molested. When on a trip to Lingay he
became overheated, and stopped to bathe in a stream, leaving his gun
on the bank. Some young men improved the opportunity thus afforded
to attack him. One of them threw a lance into him, and then they
all started to run away. Such was his reputation and influence that
he succeeded in compelling them to return and pull the lance out,
but he was fatally hurt and soon died.
After his death they took his head and his gun, and immediately
thereafter the Lingay people sent to Gallman a challenge to come and
fight them. He promptly accepted their invitation, taking a few Ifugao
soldiers with him. He found the country deserted. Women, children,
pigs and chickens had been sent into the forested mountains. Roofs
and board sides of houses had been removed so that there remained
only the bare frameworks which could not readily be burned.
For some time Gallman encountered no opposition. He at last grew
careless and walked into an ambush. He was met with a volley
of stones and a volley of lances. Fortunately for him the stones
arrived first and one of them, striking him in the face, knocked him
senseless. Another injured his right hand and knocked his revolver
from his grasp. The lances passed over him as he fell. He slid for
some distance down the almost precipitous mountain side, and his
soldiers thought him dead. When he recovered consciousness, he heard
them talking close to him. They agreed that they must do two things:
first, prevent his head from being taken; and, second, punish his
assailants. Before he could call to them they charged the latter
and scattered them right and left. Gallman staggered to his feet,
hunted around until he found his revolver, and rejoined his men. It
was known that their opponents had had ten guns before killing the
policeman and taking his. There followed a marked unpleasantness,
at the end of which Gallman had the eleven guns, and most of those
who had been using them had been gathered to their fathers. He then
returned to his station at Banaue.
Three days later the headmen of Lingay came walking in, shook hands
and announced that they had had enough. Gallman asked them why they
had been so foolish. They replied that as they already had ten
guns, when they got one more the young men became overconfident,
thought that they could whip the constabulary, get their guns also
and dominate all that part of Ifugao. The old men said that they had
warned the young fellows that their plan would result in disaster,
but as they were not to be dissuaded, and as they were their young
men, had finally joined in. They said, however, that they were glad
things had come out as they had, for the young men would now behave
themselves, and it is worthy of note that they have done so ever since.
Six weeks later, when I visited Banaue, the one survivor of the
eleven gunmen came in and danced with the other Ifugaos on the plaza,
apparently as happy as any of them.
How many Filipinos are there who have the courage, the kindliness,
the knowledge of primitive human nature and the sympathy with it which
would enable them to treat the really wild barbarians as Gallman and
Hale have treated them? Thus far I have found one, and one only.
In a previous chapter [59] I have told the story of a Kalinga with
whom I had just made friends according to the formula of his tribe who
put his life in deadly peril twice within the space of twenty-four
hours in order to save mine when it was gravely endangered by his
fellow-tribesmen. Is such real friendship possible between Filipinos
and non-Christians? Not at present. A lot of ancient history must
first be lived down.
In the Philippines it has invariably been true that the wild man has
in the past been more or less completely despoiled of the fruits of
his labour by his so-called "Christian" neighbours whenever compelled
to do business with them in order to obtain some of the necessaries
of life. He is accustomed to receive a mere pittance for his products,
and to pay enormous prices when he makes purchases. The opening of the
so-called "government exchanges," which are stores where the products
of the surrounding country are purchased and where the things required
by the hill people are sold at a small margin of profit, has proved
very useful in the establishment of friendly and helpful relations
with them. In some places they have been persuaded to grow new and
more profitable crops. Some of the Benguet Igorots, for instance,
now raise strawberries for sale at Baguio, although a few years ago
they had never seen them.
If in control, would the Filipinos reverse the policy they have
heretofore always followed in commercial dealings with the wild
men? Most assuredly not.
The Igorots, Ifugaos and Kalingas are adepts in the use of irrigation
water, and know how to terrace the steepest mountain sides so as to
employ it advantageously wherever it is available. The giving of help
in running main irrigation ditches through rock has been especially
appreciated by them. The money which we expend for this purpose
goes for the establishment of proper grade lines, the providing of
necessary supervision and the purchase of explosives and tools for
rock work. The people concerned are more than glad to contribute all
necessary labour free of charge.
Would the Filipinos continue to make funds available for such
improvements in the wild man's country? A thousand times no! Before
any one disputes me, let him show one instance where they have done
any such thing in any one of the very numerous provinces where the
expenditure of funds for non-Christians is under their control.
In dealing with tribes which have been accustomed to live by families,
or small groups of families, and to select very inaccessible places
for their homes, it is of course necessary to persuade them to live in
larger groups and in reasonably accessible places before much progress
can be made toward improving their condition. This is usually not a
very difficult task if one goes about it in the right way.
In Bukidnon, for instance, where we are still bringing people down
from the tree-tops, in which they and some of their ancestors have
lived for centuries, and settling them in well-ordered and beautifully
kept villages, when new arrivals come in to inspect the towns and
interrogate me as to the conditions under which they may take up
residence there, I often have conversations like this:--
"What about this life in town?"
"Look around and see for yourself. Talk with the people and hear what
they have to say about it. They will tell you whether they like it
or not, and why."
"But what do I have to do if I wish to live in town?"
"A piece of ground will be assigned to you and on it you must build a
decent house like those you see. This house is for you and your family,
not for me. I come here only once or twice a year and at the most stay
over one night, so I do not need your house. The lieutenant-governor
does not need it. When he comes he stays at the presidencia. He will
not let any one take it away from you."
"Very well. What else?"
"You will have to build a good, tight fence around the lot given you
and keep your domestic animals inside it. You must also clean it up
thoroughly, removing all vegetation and filling all the low places
so that water cannot stand in them. Then you must keep it clean."
"What is the use of that?"
"The búsaos [60] who cause sickness do not like clean places and stay
away from them."
"I never heard of that."
"Ask the people who have tried keeping their yards clean, and they
will tell you that it is true."
"Well, what else?"
"As long as you have to keep your yard clean you might as well plant
something useful in it, so that you will get a good return for your
labour."
"That is a good idea. Is there anything more?"
"Yes. You must take up a piece of the beautiful prairie land near
town, build a fence around it to keep out the wild hogs and deer,
and plant it with rice, camotes or something else that will give
your family plenty of food and if possible leave a surplus to sell,
so that you can buy better clothes with the money you make."
"But I cannot break this thick prairie sod."
"The ground will be ploughed for you the first time. After that you
must look after it yourself."
"Is that all?"
"No. There is one additional very important thing. I am getting old
and fat, [61] and I can no longer scramble around over these hills as
I used to do. I want to come and see you every year, and find out how
you are getting on. You will have to help build good trails for my big
horse, working ten days every year, or paying two pesos, so that some
one else can be hired to work in your place. Everything else that I
have told you must be done, if you come to town, is for your benefit,
not for mine, and even the trails are only partly for my benefit. You
will find it easy and safe to travel over them, and when you want to
go to market, your carabao will be able to pack three or four times
as much as he can now carry over bad paths."
"Will I gain any other advantages by living in town?"
"Yes, two very important ones. You and your family will be safe from
attack, and you will have a chance to send your children to school."
"Must I come and live in town if I do not want to?"
"By no means. If you prefer to live up a tree in the mountains, no
one will interfere with you so long as you behave yourself. There
are plenty of mountains and plenty of trees."
As a result of the simple arguments above outlined and of the
protection and help given them, nearly all of the Bukidnon people have
left the mountain fastnesses through which they have until recently
been scattered, and are voluntarily taking up their residences in
towns which in their way are models.
Could the Filipinos keep them in the towns where we have settled
them? No; and they would not if they could. They would chase them
back into the forests as they were doing when we made them stop
it. Furthermore, they could not if they would. In September, 1912,
I heard the people of eastern Bukidnon tell Governor Reyes of Misamis
that if their territory were put back into his province, they would
take to the hills and live with the Manobos.
One of the most important factors in winning and retaining the good
will of the non-Christian peoples has been the extension to them of
protection from the impositions of their Filipino neighbours. The
following is a fair sample of the sort of thing to which they have
in the past been subjected.
During my last trip through Bukidnon I learned that a long-haired
mountaineer who had been encouraged to plant coffee and Manila hemp
had acted on the suggestion, working very hard and establishing an
excellent plantation which had prospered. When he had products ready
for market he had taken them to the coast town of Balingasák. He did
not speak the language of the Visayan Filipino inhabitants of that
place, so fell into the hands of one of them who knew his dialect. This
rascal helped him to sell his produce, but took a heavy commission
for this service. The hillman was nevertheless delighted with the
result, whereupon his "commissioner" suggested that what he really
needed was a partner in town to sell his crops, so that he could
spend his whole time in cultivating his fields and not have to go to
market. This struck the hillman as a good idea. The Filipino made out
what purported to be articles of partnership and the hillman signed
them with his mark, in the presence of witnesses.
A few months later he sent a valuable shipment of coffee and hemp
to his "partner." When weeks had passed without his hearing from
it, he went to Balingasák to find out what was wrong, whereupon his
"partner" stated that he was greatly obliged to him for his trouble
in cultivating and harvesting the products of the farm. The hillman
demanded his share of the returns and the "partner" calmly assured
him that he had no share, having sold his farm at the time of his
last visit. Investigation proved that this ignorant man had signed
a bill of sale for his place.
Lieutenant-Governor Fortich interested himself in the case and caused
suit to be brought against the rascally "partner" for stealing the
hillman's produce. The fiscal, or public prosecuting, officer was
a bright young Filipino who had recently graduated from an American
university. Nevertheless, he had the suit thrown out of court because
the "partner" of the hillman claimed that the farm was his, and a
question of property ownership could not be conveniently determined
in connection with a criminal suit.
At this stage of events I took a hand and brought the matter to the
attention of the Honourable Gregorio Araneta, secretary of finance
and justice. The fiscal had suggested that the wild man could bring a
civil suit for damages against his "partner." How could this helpless
barbarian have gone to Cagayan, hired a lawyer and lived there while
his case was pending? He was absolutely helpless. Naturally, I was
not. Another suit was brought and the "partner" was sentenced to pay
a fine and was given a term in jail.
This is no isolated case. The wild men are constantly deprived of
their crops or their lands; cheated in the sale of their products
and in their purchases; arrested and fined on trumped-up charges;
compelled to work for others without compensation; charged by private
individuals for the privilege of using government forests or taking
up public lands; and badgered and imposed upon in a thousand and one
other ways.
If the Filipinos were put in control, would there rise up among
them unselfish men who would check the rapacity of their fellows,
and extend to the helpless peoples the protection they now enjoy?
At all events, those who have made it their business to protect the
people of the non-Christian tribes have not been popular among the
Filipinos. As a precautionary measure, I warned every man appointed
governor of, or lieutenant-governor in, a special government province
that he must expect sooner or later to be accused of many of the
crimes recognized by existing laws. Every such man who does his duty
eventually has false, and usually foul, charges brought against him. A
common, and indeed the favourite, complaint is that he has been guilty
of improper relations with women. The Filipino is an expert in framing
up cases of this sort, and seems to take special delight in it, partly
no doubt because such charges are so excessively difficult to disprove.
Cruel abuse of the wild men, or their families; falsification of public
documents; misappropriation of public funds; adultery; rape,--these
are all common charges, while more than one of my subordinates has
been accused of murder, and one has actually been brought into court
on such a charge. It is certainly no sinecure to be an officer of a
special government province.
A potent means of winning the undying regard of the wild man is to cure
him when he is sick, or heal him when he is injured. Hospitals have
already been established in two of the special government provinces
and are doing untold good. Practically every officer of these provinces
carries a set of simple remedies with him when he travels, and treats
the sick without compensation as opportunity offers, but this work
is as yet in its infancy.
The Filipinos have not doctors enough to heal their own sick. Would
they remember to heal the wild men? Hardly.
Several of the wild tribes have progressed much more rapidly during
the brief period since the American occupation than have any of
the Filipino peoples, and if given adequate protection and friendly
assistance they will continue to progress. Their splendid physiques
and high intelligence, no less than their truthfulness, honesty and
morality, certainly make them well worth saving.
Under Filipino rule the more helpless of these tribes would speedily
come under the control of their former oppressors, but people like
the Ifugaos, Bontoc Igorots, Kalingas and wild Tingians would fight
to the death before submitting to them, and there would result a
guerrilla warfare as endless and disastrous as that which has lasted
so long between the Dutch and the Achinese. There is every theoretical
reason to believe that the Filipinos would adopt toward such hostile
primitive peoples the policy of extermination which the Japanese have
been so vigorously carrying out in dealing with the hill people of
northern Formosa, who do not differ in any important respect from the
hill people of northern Luzón, with whom such helpful and friendly
relations have now been established.
We have encouraged the primitive Philippine peoples to stand up for
their rights. We have promised them our protection and help if they
would do it, and thus far we have kept our promise. To break it now,
and turn them over to the tender mercies of the Filipinos, who have
never ceased to make threats as to what they will do when they get
the chance, would in my opinion be a crime against civilization.
The Moros openly boast that if the Americans go they will raid the
Christian towns, and this is no idle threat. They will most assuredly
do it.
Were American control to be withdrawn before the civilization of the
wild tribes had been effected, their future would be dark indeed. Under
continued American control they can be won over to civilized ways,
and will in the end become mentally and morally, as they now are
physically, superior to the lowlanders.
No man has been blessed with better subordinates than I have had
to assist me in the work carried on under my direction for the
non-Christian tribes of the Philippines. I wish it clearly understood
that it is to the loyalty and efficiency of these men that the
results which have been obtained are due. Fearlessly, tirelessly,
uncomplainingly, they have borne their heavy shares of the white man's
burden, finding their greatest reward in the respect, gratitude, and
in many cases the affection, of those whom they have so faithfully
and effectively served.
Think of Pack, weakened by illnesses which twice brought him within a
hair's breadth of death, wearing himself out riding over the Mountain
Province trails, many of which he himself had laboriously built,
in order to keep the little handful of men who control its 400,000
non-Christian inhabitants up to the high-water mark of efficiency,
when he could have gone home any day and spent his remaining years
in leisurely comfort; of Bryant, wandering for weeks on end through
the trackless forests of Nueva Vizcaya in order to get in touch with
Ilongot savages who were a good deal more than "half devil" with
the balance not "half child" but peculiarly treacherous, vicious
and savage man; of Offley, packing the bare necessities of life on
his own back while he struggled out to the coast from the centre of
Mindoro, where his frightened carriers had deserted him; of Kane,
burning in the heat of the lowlands or soaked and shivering on chilly
mountain crests, while building new roads and keeping old ones open
for traffic; of Lewis, trying to cover a territory large enough to tax
the energies of three men, and in his efforts to do so riding until
so weary that at night he fell from his horse unable to dismount;
of Fortich, a Filipino lieutenant-governor, faithfully carrying out
the white man's policy and protecting the Bukidnons from his own
people who charged him with murder because he drove them from their
prey; of Gallman, risking his life a thousand times in a successful
individual effort to bring 125,000 head-hunting savages under effective
control and to establish relations of genuine friendship with them;
of Hale, turning tattooed Kalinga devils into effective officers for
the maintenance of law and order, or making a bundle of the lances
thrown at him and sending them back to the people who threw them with
a mild suggestion that it was impolite to treat a would-be friend in
such an unceremonious way; of Johnson, tramping through the reeking
filth of the Butuan swamps with a cancer eating away the bone of his
leg, and referring to it as "a little swelling" when asked what made
him lame; of Bondurant, spending the last afternoon of his life in
pursuing Moro outlaws through that worst of all tropical infernos,
a mangrove swamp, when burning with pernicious malarial fever and
fighting for the very breath of life; of Miller, faithful unto death!
We are wont to quote with feeling the familiar words, "Greater love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend,"
but what shall we say of the love of duty of men like Miller and
Bondurant, who in doing their country's work cheerfully laid down
their lives for an alien people?
While in the United States in 1910 I read Rudyard Kipling's "If"
and thereafter did not rest until I had sent a copy of it to each
governor and lieutenant-governor employed in the special provincial
government service of the Philippine Islands. Kipling wrote for these
men of mine up in the hills without knowing it. They understand him
and he would understand them.
There is not one of them who has not learned to
"... fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run";
not one whose personal experience has left him deaf to the appeal of
the lines:--
"If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise."
Furthermore, each of them has again and again finished on his
nerve. Did not the words,--
"If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'"
run through Bondurant's mind that last afternoon when he was following
Moro outlaws through a foul mangrove swamp, while his senses reeled
with the fever which was so soon to end his life?
In his wonderful quadruplet of stanzas Kipling has fixed one criterion
of manhood which it is hard indeed to meet:--
"If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build them up with worn-out tools."
I beg my fellow-countrymen to remember that the non-Christians of
the Philippines constitute an eighth of the population; that the
work undertaken for their physical, mental and moral advancement has
succeeded far beyond the hopes of those who initiated it; that its
results would go down like a house of cards if American control were
prematurely withdrawn. Shall the men who have devoted their lives to
these things be forced to watch them broken, and then be denied the
poor privilege of building them up again? If the splendid results of
so much efficient, faithful, self-sacrificing and successful effort
were to be lost, would not the dead who gave their lives for them
turn in their graves?
The greatest of the non-Christian tribe problems in the Philippines
at present is, "Shall the work go on?"
There is one satisfaction which no man can take from those of us
who have worked for the advancement of these backward and hitherto
neglected peoples. We have shown what can be done!