ETHNIC DISTINCTIONS
BADJAOS SAMALS TAUSUGS YAKANS
The Subanons
The Subanons are considered the aborigines of Zamboanga. They settled before the Spaniards occupied the city. The term, Subanon, derived from Suba (river), means People of the River. The Subanons form a single distinctive cultural and linguistic group. They are mostly farmers growing upland rice, root and tree crops.
The
Subanon settlements today are thinly spread over the southern Zamboanga
del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, stretching northward, then eastward to
the hinterlands of the neighboring province of Misamis Occidental (which
is a part of the political subdivision of Region IX).
