The Batak are one of about 140 indigenous peoples of the Philippines. They are located in the northeastern portions of Palawan, a relatively large island in the southwest of the archipelago. Since ancient times, the Batak have inhabited a series of river valleys along the coastline of what is today Puerto Princesa City. There are only about 450 Batak remaining according to a 1990 census. Also called Tinitianes, the Batak are considered by anthropologists to be closely related to the Aeta of Central Luzon, another Negrito tribe. They tend to be small in stature, with dark skin and frizzy or curly-hair, traits which originally garnered the "Negrito" groups their name. Still, there is some debate as to whether the Batak are related to the other Negrito groups of the Philippines or actually to other, physically similar groups in Indonesia or as far away as the Andaman Islands. History The Batak have for centuries combined a hunting-gathering lifestyle with seeding of useful food plants, kaingin, a slash and burn farming method, and trading. The Batak had important trading connections with the maritime peoples of the Sulu region for many centuries of their history. They traded natural and forest goods in exchange for manufactured products. The Batak were largely undisturbed until the arrival of the Americans in the final years of the nineteenth century. The reason for this was that the Bataks were within the margins of mainstream Filipino political and cultural life. Since 1900, Filipinos and others began to migrate to the traditional regions where the Batak lived. This led to the resources and land of the Bataks dwindling. In the 1930s, the government attempted to establish reservations for the Batak in the coastal plains, but these were soon settled and overrun by Filipino migrants in the 1950s. This caused the Batak to move inland into the interior of the island. During the mid to late 20th century, the Batak was easily pushed out of their preferred gathering grounds by the sea into the mountains by emigrant farmers, mostly from Luzon. Living in less fertile areas, they have attempted to supplement their income by harvesting and selling various nontimber forest products, such as rattan, tree resins, and honey. This has been met with resistance by the government and commercial collectors, who assert that the Batak have no legal right to these resources. Conservationists, however, have taken an interest in Batak's collection