This comprehensive report, published in 1913 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, documents the culture and language of the Subanu, a mountain-dwelling, non-Christian people of the Zamboanga peninsula in Mindanao, Philippines. The study was compiled in the early years of American rule, with the ethnographic portion authored by Lieutenant-Colonel John Park Finley, U.S.A., who was then the Governor of Zamboanga. The work is historically significant for providing a detailed sketch of the Subanu, who, despite being the original inhabitants of western Mindanao, were continuously pushed into the inaccessible interior by coastal Moro and Filipino groups through raiding and exploitation. Finley's contribution is contextualized by his administrative efforts to protect this peaceful, agricultural population, including his role in organizing the Moro Exchange system to establish honest trade and promote industrial development. The linguistic analysis by William Churchill is a valuable record that classifies the Subanu language, providing extensive vocabularies and detailing its place within the larger Visayan and Malayan language families.
The Subanu: studies of a Sub-Visayan mountain folk of Mindanao