List of Recognized Indigenous Groups

Amis, Atayal , Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Pinuyumayan or Punuyumayan, Rukai, Saisiyat, Thao, Truku, Tsou, and Yami. As of 2002, the total number of indigenous people in Taiwan was 433,689.

Indigenous Austronesian Culture

Twelve indigenous groups of Formosan language speakers and Yami are officially recognized as existing according to their distinct language and culture. It is hypothesized by linguists and archaeologists that Formosan languages represent an archaic component of the Austronesian Language Family.

Taiwan indigenous cultures dating back 6,500 years ago were Neolithic. The remains of these Neolithic cultures are the largest settlements of that antiquity in the island Western Pacific area representing a continuum in house construction styles, pottery types, burial-patterns, and slate and nephrite jade utilization for making refined tools, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. These sophisticated cultures existed as stone working peoples up to the Metal Age transforming the material life about two thousand years ago. In the past 400 years, the indigenous people of Taiwan representing more than 25 groups began from the Western plains interaction with European colonial powers, such as the Dutch, Spanish, and French. The peoples of the mountainous and eastern coastal regions were isolated until Japanese rule from 1895. Since 1945 the Nationalist government of China has administrated Taiwan and the surrounding islands. Indigenous cultures have come under the authority of national government agencies to the present Council of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan [http://www.apc.gov.tw].