The Vanishing Batak Tribe

Not to be insulting, but most of the tribal people smelled as if they didn’t bathe often, if at all. In the winter, when it didn’t rain, the river was completely dry, so obtaining water just for drinking must already have been a hardship. Bathing would have been out of the question. And of course a lack of water brings up the questions of where were they getting their drinking water. And, was it clean?

Dr. LaGuardia was dispensing a lot of multi vitamins and antibiotics. “They all seem to have lung infections. We don’t have a field test kit for TB, but we can treat it with antibiotics.”

The Batak must also chew a lot of betel nut because they had terrible teeth, black, red, and missing.

In the end, the doctor estimated that 80% of the patients were severely anemic. Dr. LaGuardia peeled back the lower eye-lid of one man and showed me. “The tissue here should be red.” Instead, the man’s tissue was completely white. “This is a sign of anemia.” The man, Willis, was a muscular guy, who looked like the healthiest person in the village. But in actuality, he was one of the sickest.

When asked about his diet Willis said, “I wish I could eat more meat, but I can’t afford it.”

“We can treat the anemia with courses of multivitamins,” said Dr. LaGuardia, explaining to the Batak patients how many pills they should take and for how many days. “But how can we be sure they will take them once we leave?”

“In prescribing medicines for tribal people you have to be careful about dosages. First, they are very small in stature. And second, they have never taken any medicine in their life. Luckily, with multivitamins we don’t have to worry about vitamin toxicity. It would be different, however, if we were giving them A or E by itself because it accumulates in the body.”

Trying to discover the source of the anemia, we quizzed the Batak about their diet. The story from all of them was the same. Kudot was the staple of the diet. The only meat they got was from small animals. Squirrels were often trapped in holes in hollow tree trunks and killed with a stick.

Francis, 21 years old, a Tagbanua working for the Tag Balay foundation, told me he had lived his whole life in a Filipino style village. He even went to university for several years but had to stop because of financial constraints. Now, he was helping the tribes and doing translation. Francis had a gentle, kind spirit and seemed so at home in the village talking to everyone.

“I feel very happy to come here,” said Francis. “I have more in common with these people than I do with city people.”

Dr. LaGuardia suggested that someone should teach the Batak to domesticate chickens. “Chickens are easy to keep and feed. And that would eliminate the problem with anemia.”

But Marifi said, “No, they are nomadic. They can’t domesticate animals and continue to live as nomads.”

Dr. Fernandez explained further about the migratory habits of the tribe. “The Batak can replant forest foods closer to the village but they do very little actual agriculture. Nomadic is perhaps not the right word. They do move if they deplete the resources in a particular part of the forest. In recent years moving has been a means of dealing with encroachment from lowlanders. The Tagbanua are more sophisticated. They have had contact with Muslims since the early 1900’s. They traded with Muslim seaborne traders who exploited them. They also had contact with Muslim pirates who committed raids.” The Tagbanua were able to embrace the outsiders, or at least, deal with them in a constructive fashion. “Tagbanua women marry Muslim men. There have been attempts made to convert them to Islam, but it hasn’t taken hold, although you do find some Muslim goods in their homes.”

“The Batak, on the other hand, engage in conflict resolution by fission, moving away from trouble. This behavior is very common among hunter gatherers.”

As for the acquisition of Muslim goods or houses among the Batak, Dr. Fernandez reiterated, “Material wealth is a burden to hunter gatherers.”

As a rule, the Batak, unlike other ethnic minorities, don’t make any attempt to go to the city and find jobs.

“They know they are always welcome at Tag Balay.” Explained Marifi. “And they sometimes walk all the way into the city when they have a problem. We keep beds for them in the back of the office, so they can sleep if they need to, but we don’t encourage them to move into town.”

Other than a few of the children, the youngest man wearing traditional garments was in his late thirties. The rest of the men were wearing jeans. Even in the most traditional of Batak villages, the culture was dying.

A little Batak boy named Jonus had just traded his loin cloth for basketball shorts and was trying to master his new yo-yo. He looked so much like a city kid, Marifi asked him, “Do you want to go to school?”

“No.” He answered, without even a moment’s hesitation.

“Why not?” asked Marifi.

“My family is too poor. We can’t pay for school.”

“What if someone paid for you?”

“No, I am too old for school, now.”

Jonus looked like he was nine, but in actuality he was 13.

My experiences with the tribes in Thailand and Burma told me that tribal kids like being tribal kids. They like playing in the wilderness and hunting and gathering. They have no chores, or duties, or schedules apart from what is necessary to live. Also the apprenticeship for a hunter gatherer is much shorter than for a city dweller. Where it takes us 25 years to complete an education, and be able to support ourselves, and live as adults, tribal kids can learn all they need to know, and get married by their mid teens.

When it was time for us to go, Lorenzo stood before the entire assembly and in a very dignified manner, befitting a polished statesman, made a lengthy speech of thanks to Marifi, Tag Balay, and Mayor Hagedorn.

The Batak women banged the drum as we made our way back to our vehicles.

Both Marifi and Dr. Fernandez were in agreement that the Batak were on their last legs. As proof, they both cited the book, The Road to Extinction, by James Eder. Mr. Eder outlines several causes why the tribal people, all over the world, are dying out: Deterioration of resources, loss of land or forced relocation, diet, diminished fertility, infant mortality, and malnutrition. The lack of preferred spouses forces them to marry undesirable husbands and promote undesirable genes. Finally, the long term stress of foraging and worrying about food destroys the health of the hunter gatherers. Additional stress comes from worrying about being eaten by animals and stress caused by the threat of encroachment by outsiders.

As the tribe disappeared in the rearview mirror, I realized that soon they would disappear forever. Did that mean little Jonus would die, never having attended school? Lorenzo would surely be one of the first to go. Then who would be the leader of the tiny enclave that would be left? Would people like Elicio come and exploit them further?