Taiwan Indigenous News
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
Political whisk: Angry Taiwan aboriginals throw eggs
"It's about our land, and the Council of Indigenous Peoples doesn't support us." The protesters, organised largely by aboriginal legislators, ...
Tea, aboriginal beads, cakes win contest for Taiwan's best products
Handcrafted with clay, they were used as a symbol of nobility and power in the aboriginal tribe. Now they have become one of the must-buy tour souvenirs in ...
Indigenous people call for minister to resign
6 (CNA) Over 300 members of the indigenous people's alliance for safeguarding the Aboriginal Basic Law staged a protest Tuesday in front of the Council of ...
Protesters slam interference in media affairs
PTS, Hakka Television Service and Taiwan Indigenous Television Service (TITV) are all affiliates of TBS, which is funded mainly by the government. ...
Since there are no written records, we have to rely on what has been passed down orally about the Saisiat tribe’s early migration history. According to the oral tradition, in their early days the Saisiat occupied a much larger territory than today, which included the extensive mountain areas and coastal plains around the border of today’s Miaoli and Taichung Counties. Later, about 200 years ago, increasing demographic pressure from the Atayal and Han Chinese settlers gradually forced the Saisiat to retreat into the area that they still occupy today. According to their geographical distribution, they are divided into a northern and a southern group.
Geographical Distribution of Southern Group:
Geographical Distribution of Northern Group:
It is not just their different geographical and administrative situation that distinguishes the northern and the southern Saisiat from each other, but also their consequent exposure to different cultural and environmental influences. The southern Saisiat, having lived for generations in close proximity to Hakka settlements, were clearly influenced by Hakka customs and culture, while the northern Saisiat absorbed much Atayal culture through intermarriage and living in mixed communities. Census statistics from 2006 put the total number of the Saisiat population at 5,402.
