Taiwan’s Executive Yuan will ratify the Sakizaya (撒奇èŠé›… / SÄqÃláiyÇŽ) as an indigenous tribe on January 17, raising the number of officially recognized tribes here to thirteen.
During Japan’s rule over Taiwan (1895-1945), Japanese ethnologists classified the Sakizaya as members of the Ami. Later scholars, however, have distinguished the two groups as a separate because of linguistic differences and the Sakizaya’s sense of their own identity.
Representatives of the Sakizaya applied in 2004 with the Council of Indigenous Peoples for official recognition.
The Sakizaya live mainly in Hualian City and Hualian County’s townships of Shoufeng, Ruisui, and Fengbin.
I hope to find more information about the tribe’s language, as well as the origins of the tribe’s name.
sources:
- Sakizaya ratified as thirteenth indigenous tribe, CNA, via the China Post, January 17, 2007
- Dì 13 ge yuánzhùmÃn zú SÄqÃláiyÇŽ zú: XÃngzhèngyuà n mÃng zhèngmÃng (第13個原ä½æ°‘æ—撒奇èŠé›…æ— è¡Œæ”¿é™¢æ˜Žæ£å), CNA, January 16, 2007
site admin said
In today’s Taipei Times (Premier finds inspiration in recognition of Sakiraya), the tribe’s name is spelled Sakiraya, not Sakizaya. The Council of Indigenous Peoples, however, has confirmed for me that the Z spelling is correct.