ILI TYPE - Kankanaey

A. HISTORY OF THE ETHNIC GROUP.

History of the Kankanaey People

Both northern and southern Kankanaey

have always been rice terrace
agriculturists. The original 34 villages of
the northern Kankanaey, located on
high slopes of the central Cordillera
range, are concentrated near the
Kayan-Bauko and Sumadel-Besao
areas. These communities appear to
have existed long before the coming
of the Spaniards to the archipelago.
Proof is the extensiveness of their rice
terraces, which must have taken a
considerable period to build. The fact
that these terraces and the names of
the first communities were noted in the
records of the first Spanish expedition to
the Cordilleras in 1665 is a confirmation
of early Kankanaey civilization.
Moreover, the Benguet area had some
of the largest gold and ore deposits,
and the Kankanaey and Ibaloy who
had settled here had been planning
and digging for gold long before the Spaniards arrived on the islands.

Several reasons have been advanced for the division of the Kankanaey into two. One
reason is that the group that went up to the hills could not afford to have another
group control the source of water after they were driven away from the coastal belt.
Another reason proposed is that the salutary climate of the Cordillera highlands, with
its lush green vegetation and other natural riches, may have attracted the ancestors
of the present mountain dwellers to go beyond the “malaria-ridden jungle belt” that
stops at the 1,000-meter line of the mountains. The northern Kankanaey occupy a
region that averages 2,000 meters above sea level. They may have arrived at their
present location due to the process of displacement; or they may have naturally
gravitated to a terrain more to their liking or to one that is similar to southern China,
which, according to a theory of migration, their ancestors have left behind. The
forebears of the northern Kankanaey started building rice terraces near the villages.

Because the foothills and coastal plains of the Ilocos region lie across the boundary to
the west, the Kankanaey areas are contiguous to the lowlands. This made them more
susceptible than the Bontok, Ifugao, and other mountain people to external influence,
though less vulnerable than the Tinguian and the Ibaloy who were even nearer and
more accessible to both the Spanish colonial forces and the Filipino lowlanders and
settlers. The Spaniards had occupied the adjacent lowlands as early as 1572, but it
was only after a hundred years that they were able to reach the territory of the
northern Kankanaey.

The Spaniards went up the Cordillera in search of the fabled gold. In May 1572, Juan
de Salcedo, grandson of Governor-General Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, led an
expedition, which yielded 25 kilograms of gold three months later. This, along with
other reports of Cordillera chiefs and their slaves possessing gold, encouraged
subsequent expeditions such as those led by Francisco de Sande in 1576, Juan
Pacheco Maldonado in 1580, Luis Perez Dasmariñas in 1591, Francisco de Mendoza
in 1591, and Pedro Sid in 1591. However, most of the gold gathered by the Spaniards
did not come from mining but from either the collection of it as tribute or the looting
of the gold and heirlooms from the Cordillera people. The people themselves stopped
mining and kept the location of their gold mines a secret. A series of more expeditions
were led by Pangasinan Governor Captain Garcia Aldana y Cabrera in 1620,
Sergeant Major Antonio Carreño in 1623, and Governor Alonso Fajardo in 1624. The
futility of their search led to the Royal Audiencia’s decision to discontinue all
subsequent expeditions.

The Spanish colonizers left the area, unable to maintain their outposts, and for almost
150 years, the northern Kankanaey were left in peace; what contact there was
between the people of the highlands and the lowlands was indirect. The Spaniards
came back in the first part of the 19th century, and established a comandancia de
Lepanto (Lepanto military district) in 1852, measuring 2,167 square kilometers,
bounded by Abra and Bontoc on the north, Benguet and Nueva Viscaya on the
south, Bontoc and Kiangan (Quiangan) on the east, and Tiagan and Amburayan on
the west. The comandancia de Lepanto was composed of five towns and 40 villages,
with Cervantes and Mankayan as principal towns. The Kankanaey, referred to by
outsiders and the Benguet-Lepanto Igorot as the busao (enemies) in the area, put up
some resistance.

Spanish control, wielded through the force of arms and proselytization, eventually set
in. Mankayan’s copper mines were opened to exploitation by a Spanish mining
company. People in some districts were compelled by the Spanish authorities to grow
coffee and tobacco for the colonial government. Missions and schools were put up
in certain areas.

The homeland of the northern Kankanaey saw access roads from the Ilocos coastal
region built to reach it, and these new routes facilitated the influx of Spaniards, Filipino
lowlanders, and Chinese traders. The opening of the western flank of the Cordillera
set into motion acculturative processes that would have a great impact on
succeeding historical periods. These processes would include Christianization,
urbanization, political modernization, and integration of a highland agricultural
society to a market economy.

The eruption of war between Spanish and American forces and the subsequent war
of independence waged by Filipino revolutionaries against the new colonial forces
drew the involvement of the Igorot people. While the nation was undergoing the
throes of a full-blown national war, age-old conflicts over the use of resources and
cultural differences between the Kankanaey and their traditional rivals were revived.
A resurgence of headhunting occurred for some time until pacification set in under
the new American regime in 1902.

In 1899, the US army pursued the revolutionary leader, Emilio Aguinaldo, in the
Cordilleras. Some of the former American soldiers returned to the mountains in search
of the gold they had heard so much about. Early reports by American officials about
the abundance of gold, particularly in the Itogon area, contributed to the influx of
former soldiers-turned-prospectors. Knowing little, if at all, about prospecting, they
succeeded in finding the gold either by befriending the “Igorot” or by marrying into
kadangyan or baknang (traditional aristocrat) families who already had control of the
gold mines.

The Americans established a local government and several regulatory agencies in

order to secure its interests in the mineral-rich Cordilleras and to stop the growing
number of miners from usurping higher authorities. The Mining Bureau oversaw all
mining activities, and the Bureau of Public Lands facilitated mining grants and claims.
Laws that were instituted paved the way for Americans to claim the lands that once
were owned, operated, and developed by the local population. Almost half of the
88 sections of the Philippine Bill of 1902, or the Organic Act, pertained to mining. The
construction of an important road, known later as Kennon Road, made Benguet and
other gold-rich areas accessible to Manila and the lowlands. As a result, the total gold
production of the country reached almost half a million pesos per year between 1907
and 1911, around half of which was from Benguet alone. By 1929, Benguet was
yielding 86% of the total 6.7 million peso gold production and 92% of the 73.7 million
pesos just before World War II. Much of the increase in yield was attributed to the
continuously high production and the discovery of new mining sites, most notably in
Itogon and Balatoc.

In 1904, the Kankanaey, particularly those from the town of Suyoc in northern Benguet,
were among the indigenous peoples of the Philippines brought to the St. Louis World’s
Fair, in Louisana, USA, to showcase what the United States called its “possessions.”
Together with 70 Bontok and 17 Tinguian, the 25 Kankanaey composed the “Igorrote
Village” at the Exposition. Among them was the Kankanaey Dang-usan, who was
married to Charles Pettit, an American soldier turned gold prospector in 1900 during
the Philippine-American War. Pettit’s fellow prospector was another war veteran,
Truman Hunt, who became Bontoc’s lieutenant-governor and was tasked to put
together the “Igorrotes” for the Fair. Persuaded by Dang-usan and Pettit, the former’s
relatives and neighbors joined the other “Igorrotes” and arrived at the fairgrounds on
25 March 2004. An 18-year-old Kankanaey woman died of pneumonia a month after
their arrival. Referred to in the fair as “Suyocs” and “miners,” the 25 Kankanaey—
fourteen men, seven women, and four boys, with ages ranging from 6 to 50—
demonstrated their skills in blacksmithing, metalworking (i.e., making tininggal or
copper chains), fabric- and basket-weaving, pipe-making (making pek or pipe),
beadwork, mining, and copper and ore reduction. The four boys attended a “model
school” with the Bontok children. After eight months, they left the United States on 13
November with a group of Visayans and Tinguian.
In the Philippines, the Kankanaey, Bontok, Ifugao, and other Cordillera groups were
integrated under the new politico-military dispensation. Protestantism, military service,
and education created a new Igorot identity for the Kankanaey and the other
Cordillera people, especially those who comprised the new educated elite.

Japanese forces during World War II penetrated through the Mountain Province in
February 1942. In need of much needed resources, the imperial forces headed
straight to the province’s copper mines, including those in Mankayan. Daily
production in the Lepanto copper mine in Mankayan, which operated until the end
of the war, reached 1,000 tons.

Soon after the ouster of Marcos in 1986, the new president Corazon Aquino signed a
peace pact with the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army (CPLA), an armed group that
aimed for regional autonomy founded on the institutionalization of the bodong or
peace pact. Negotiations between the government and the CPLA led to the
formation of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in July 1987. CAR also reunited
the former mountain provinces, including Abra as a special region. But the Organic
Acts enacted by Congress that would have transformed Cordillera into an
autonomous region were rejected in the January 1990 and March 1998 plebiscites.

Reference:

Campoamor II, G.A., Cruz-Lucero, R. & Tindaan, R., Maranan, E.B. (2020).
Kankanaey. Retrieved September 20, 2022 from
https://www.yodisphere.com/2022/09/Kankanaey-Tribe-Culture.html

B. CHARACTERISTICS/DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PEOPLE, CULTURE,

LANGUAGE, PRACTICES, BELIEFS, CLOTHING, ETC.
Beliefs

Because of the long years of missionary presence in the Kankana-ey areas, the
people have been Christianized. Many are now Roman Catholics and Protestants.
Some have joined the Iglesia ni Cristo and other religious groups established within
the Kankana-ey areas.

Although many have professed faith in Christ, most of them still engage in pagan
practices as shown in many of their rituals during weddings, rites of passage, planting
and harvest, medicine and others.

Cultural

Like most Igorot ethnic groups, the Kankana-ey built sloping terraces to maximize farm
space in the rugged terrain of the Cordillera.

Two famous institutions of the Kankana-ey of Mountain Province are the dap-ay, the
men's dormitory and civic center, and the ebgan, the girls' dormitory where courtship
between young men and women took place.
The Kankana-ey differ in the way they dress. The women soft-speaking Kankana-ey's
dress has a color combination of black, white and red. The design of the upper attire
is a criss-crossed style of black, white and red colors. The skirt or tapis is a combination
of stripes of black, white and red.

The women hard-speaking Kankana-ey's dress is composed of mainly red and black
with a little white styles, as for the skirt or tapis which is mostly called bakget and
gateng. The men wore a g-string as it is called but it is mainly known as wanes for the
Kanakan-eys of Besao and Sagada. The design of the wanes may vary according to
social status or municipality.
The Kankana-ey's major dances include tayaw, pattong, takik, a wedding dance,
and balangbang. The tayaw is a community dance that is usually done in weddings;
it may be also danced by the Ibaloi people but has a different style. Pattong is also a
community dance from Mountain Province which every municipality has its own style.
Balangbang is the modernized word for the word Pattong. There are also some other
dances that the Kankanaeys dance, such as the sakkuting, pinanyuan (wedding
dance) and bogi-bogi (courtship dance).

Kankana-ey houses are built like the other Igorot houses, which reflect their social
status.

Language

The name Kankana-ey came from the language which they speak. The only
difference among the Kankana-ey are the way they speak like intonation and the
usage of some words.

In intonation, there is a hard Kankana-ey or Applai and soft Kankana-ey. Speakers of

hard Kankana-ey are from Sagada, Besao and the surrounding parts or barrios of the
said two municipalities. They speak Kankana-ey hard in intonation where they differ in
some words from the soft-speaking Kankana-ey.

The soft speaking Kankana-ey comes from Northern Benguet, some parts of Benguet,
and from the municipalities of Sabangan, Tadian and Bauko from Mountain Province.
In words, for example, an Applai might say otik or beteg (pig) and the soft-speaking
Kankana-ey may say busaang or beteg as well. The Kankana-ey may also differ in
some words like egay or aga, maid or maga. They also differ in their ways of life and
sometimes in culture.

The Kankana-ey are identified by the language they speak and the province form
where they come. Kankana-ey people from Mountain Province may call the
Kankana-ey from Benguet as Ibenget because they come from Benguet. Likewise,
the Kankanaey of Benguet may call their fellow Kankana-ey from Mountain Province
Ibontok.

Reference:

“Kankana-ey History”. (n.d.) Retrieved September 20, 2022 from

http://jephie228.blogspot.com/2014/08/kankana-ey-history_11.html
Kankanaey Costume and Traditional Attire

The traditional garment for the Kankanaey male is the wanes (G-string). Among the
northern Kankanaey, this is usually red with colored borders or sometimes dark blue
with red stripes and decorated ends. The bandala, worn by the men, is a dark blue
blanket with white lines.

The bak-ut, also called getap and tapis, is the female’s wraparound skirt. In other
areas, the Kankanaey call this garment gaboy and palingay. The Kankanaey’s skirt
reaches only down to the knee and is thus shorter than that of the Benguet Ibaloy.
The everyday getap is white with indigo-blue bands. A variant of the getap called
kinteg is indigo black, with white-and-blue bands. The getap is kept in place with a
inandolo, also called wakes and bakget, a belt 7.5 to 15 centimeters wide, made of
tightly woven cotton yarn and wound twice around the waist.

The aklang is the woman’s cotton blouse: white, short sleeved, and collarless, open in
front but buttoned up at the upper end. The galey or ules is a blanket worn on the
upper body as a protection against the cold. The blanket incorporates red-and-blue
panels of varying widths, with mortars, snakes, or some anthropomorphic figures.
C. CHOOSE SOMETHING THAT IS FOUND IN THE ETHNIC GROUP
THAT YOU MAY CONSIDER AS A GREAT CONTRIBUTION ONCE
APPLIED TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE PHILIPPINES OR IN THE
VALUES SYSTEM OF THE FILIPINOS.
CULTURAL PRESENTATION. It is how our Kankanaey group or rather the WHOLE
CORDILLERAN, showcases our own culture, beliefs, clothes, etc. to other groups. This
means that IGOROTS has not only preserved our historical traditions but also accepts
and promotes the saying “tangkilikin ang sariling atin”.

This for me is very important in the value system of the Filipinos because this does not
only respect our ancestor’s hard work but will benefit our economic growth. In what
way? It would encourage everyone to promote our own products (showcasing our
cultures and traditions) that may interest a lot of investors, hitting 2 birds with 1 stone.
Not only will we draw out other development but we have also been able to share
our culture with other groups of people.