THE SUBANU. 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SUBANU. 
TRIBAL DESIGNATION. 
The term Subanun (Subanon) is of Moro (Sulu) origin and signifies 
a man or people of the river or, more exactly, a man or people from up 
the river. The Sulu equivalent of the word river is soba; of the phrase 
up the river, the equivalent is sumud ha soba. ‘The suffix nun denotes 
locality or place of habitation. ‘The suffix non has a similar significa- 
tion in Visayan. ‘The suffixes num and nom possess similar meanings 
in the dialects of Ilocano, Lepanto, and Bontoc, and in some of the 
Formosan dialects. According to the Spanish nomenclature this term 
is written Subano. When these people are interrogated, those living 
near the coast call themselves Subanu or Subano; those living near the 
headwaters of the rivers and in the mountains call themselves tan bukid 
ot tan buid, meaning, respectively, man of the hills or hill-man, or man 
of the fields. The word bukid in Visayan means hill or mountain, in 
Tagalog it means field or country. 
Christie says: 
The name Subanun means river dweller, from the word suba river, common 
to Philippine dialects, including Sulu and Visaya. ‘This term was applied to 
the tribe because its members are met with in going up the river from the coast, 
in contradistinction to the Moros and Christians of the Zamboanga Peninsula, 
who are coast dwellers. Probably the term was first applied by these people 
to themselves.* 
The habitat of these people is confined to the interior and moun- 
tainous portions of the Zamboanga district of the great island of Min- 
danao. Inhis history of Mindanao and Sulu, published in 1667, Father 
Francisco Combes calls the Subanu the ‘“‘fourth nation of Mindanao”’ 
and refers to them as the inhabitants of the rivers, to which they owe 
their name, as the radical suba is the ‘‘ word used by the nations (tribes) 
of Mindanao for river.” 
The names of tribes, of persons, of titles, of places, and of natural 
features in the Philippines have been subject to much irregularity and 
confusion in their orthographical presentation. ‘This is due to the 
absence of an established orthographic system, the neglect of such a 
system when properly authorized, ignorance of or indifference to the 
*Emerson Brewer Christie: The Subanuns of Sindangan Bay. Manila, 1909: 
Bureau of Science, Division of Ethnology; Publications, vol. v1, part 1, pp. 121, chart, 29 
illustrations. 
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