Filipinos born on the Grand Cordillera Central are generally known as Igorots, though they might more accurately be referred to by the names of six different ethno-linguistic groups into which they can be divided -- Isneg (Apayao), Kalinga, Bontoc, Ifugao, Kankanaey, and Ibaloi. But historically they all have one thing in common, whatever they are called -- their ancestors resisted assimilation into the Spanish Empire for three centuries.
-William Henry Scott, in his authoritative Discovery of the Igorots (New Day, 1974)
Ordinarily the Spaniards called the indigenous populations of their empire both in the Americas and the Philippines indios, a term which originally had no derogatory connotations but was the simple result of Columbus's mistaken notion that he head reached the Orient when he found the New World. As these subject peoples modified their native customs under foreign domination, the Spaniards quickly formed their own image of the indio -- a dark-skinned person wearing pants who attended mass, paid taxes, obeyed Spanish laws, and only went to war when the gopvernment told him to. The mountain people of northern Luzon onviously did not conform to this pattern whether called Igorots, Tinguians, or Zambals, so they were collectively referred to as tribus independientes rather than indios.
During the 1887 Philippine Exposition in Madrid, where Cordillera tribespeople were put on display for the curiosity of the Spanish peninsulas, a scholarly Spaniard named Don Manuel Anton explained the inaccuracy of calling all non-Christian tribes Igorots, as cited in the same book by Scott.
Hey check it out! Do you know there are different tribes inhabiting in Benguet? Well if not, how about us give you a lesson on it.
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