Gaddang people

The Gaddang are an officially-recognized indigenous people and a linguistically identified ethnic group residing for centuries in the Northern Luzon watershed of the Cagayan River and its tributaries.

Gaddang speakers were recently reported to number as many as 30,000, a number that does not include another 6,000 related Ga'dang speakers or any of several other small linguistic-groups whose vocabularies are determined to be more than 75% identical.

These proximate groups, speaking mutually-intelligible but phonetically-varying dialects, include Gaddang, Ga'dang, Baliwon, Cauayeno, Majukayong, Katalangan, Itawit, and Yogad (as well as historically-documented tongues such as formerly spoken by the Irray of Tuguegarao). They are depicted in current official literature and history as a single people. Cultural distinctions are asserted between (a) Christian residents of the Isabela plains and Nueva Vizcaya valleys, and (b) formerly non-Christian residents in the nearby Cordillera mountains. Certain reporters have exaggerated one or more of those differences, while others may completely ignore or gloss them over.

The Gaddang are indigenous to a compact geographic area; the stage for their story is an area smaller than three-quarters of a million hectares (extreme distances: Bayombong to Ilagan=120 km, Echague to Natonin=70 km). The living population collectively comprises less than one-twentieth of one percent (.0005) of Philippines inhabitants, and share their one-quarter percent of that nation's land with Ifugao, Ilokano and others.

As a people, Gaddang have no record of expansionism, they created no unique religion or set of beliefs, nor produced any notable government. Gaddang cultural-identity is determined by their language and to a lesser degree was shaped by the of their location. However, they have historically implemented social mechanisms to incorporate as full members of their communities individuals born to linguistically-different peoples.