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Updated: June 4, 2025
They have intermarried to some extent with the Kulaman, and in times past Bila-an and Bagobo slave women have been added to the tribe. The general name applied to red cotton trade cloth. Today practically all the members of the Kagan division are found living on the American plantations along the Padada and Bulatakay rivers.
Well made baskets stand by the walls or hang from pegs along with articles of clothing, while spears, shields, and other weapons are fastened to side walls or roof. As is the case with all the wild tribes in this district, the Bila-an make new clearings as soon as the cogon grass begins to invade their fields, and this in time causes them to move their homes from one locality to another.
Here we are confronted by the objection that, so far as is known, no iron work is done by the Bila-an and Ata, but this is a condition which is encountered throughout the archipelago. In the interior of Luzon are found isolated villages, the inhabitants of which are expert workers in iron and steel, while their neighbors seem to be ignorant of the process.
It appears that the Bila-an once inhabited the district about Lake Buluan, but the pressure of the Moro has forced most of them from that region toward the mountains to the south and east. They have taken possession of both sides of this mountain range, except for the lower eastern slopes where they have encountered the Tagakaolo.
According to their own tales, the Kulaman once held all the coast from the Padada River to Sarangani Bay, but did not extend far back from the sea, since in the mountains lived the Tagakaolo and Bila-an with whom they were constantly at war.
From these measurements it appears that the Bila-an are somewhat shorter than the Bagobo; are more short headed, the majority being brachycephalic; while the height from tragus to vertex is about the same in both groups, and both have the crown and back of the head strongly arched. The face is absolutely shorter and relatively broader than in the Bagobo.
In all the groups, except the Bila-an, the percentage of individuals showing evidences of Negrito blood increases as we go from the coasts toward the interior, until in such divisions as the Obo and Tigdapaya of the Bagobo, and the Tugauanum of the Ata, practically all the people show traces of this admixture. Negrito are reported from the Samal Islands in the Gulf of Davao.
As a matter of fact, the Bila-an compare in stature with the coast natives and differ little from them in color, although a few individuals of decidedly lighter cast are met with. BLAIR and ROBERTSON The Philippine Islands, Vol. XLIII, pp. 239, 282-283. Census of the Philippine Islands, 1905. Observations were made on thirty-eight men, but no women could be induced to submit to being measured.
This idea was found among the ancient Tagalog, Visayan, and Zambal, and still exists among the Apayao of Northern Luzon; the Bagobo, Mandaya, Bila-an, and Tagakaola of Mindanao; as well as in Borneo and the islands to the south. That it once had a strong hold on the Ilocano of the coast is made evident by the mysterious cult known as axibrong, which at times terrifies whole communities.
Hostile raids against the neighboring Bila-an, Tagakaolo, and Ata seem to have been common from the most ancient times. After the arrival of the Spaniards there were many minor conflicts with the Moro, and the tribal history takes note of several serious feuds between Bagobo villages.
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