Prior to Spanish colonisation of the islands, the peoples now included under the term did not consider themselves as belonging to a single, cohesive ethnic group.

The Chico River provides sand, gravel, and white clay, while the forests of Barlig and Sadanga within the area have rattan, bamboo and pine trees.

The Ibaloi (also Ibaloy, Ibaluy, Nabaloi, Inavidoy, Inibaloi, Ivadoy) and Kalanguya (also Kallahan and Ikalahan) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines who live mostly in the southern part of Benguet, located in the Cordillera of northern Luzon, the eastern part of La Union of Ilocos Region and Nueva Vizcaya in the Cagayan Valley region with a population of 209,338 as of 2020.

Baguio, the major city of the Cordillera, dubbed the "Summer Capital of the Philippines," is located in southern Benguet.

They come from the municipalities of Lagawe (Capital Town), Aguinaldo, Alfonso Lista, Asipulo, Banaue, Hingyon, Hungduan, Kiangan, Lamut, Mayoyao, and Tinoc.

[8] The term "Ifugao" is derived from "ipugo" which means "earth people", "mortals" or "humans", as distinguished from spirits and deities.

Isnag populations also live in the eastern area of the province of Ilocos Norte, specifically the municipalities of Adams, Carasi, Marcos, Dingras, Vintar, Dumalneg and Solsona; and in the Northwestern part of the province of Cagayan, specifically the municipalities of Santa Praxedes, Claveria, Pamplona and Sanchez Mira.

The shaman, Anituwan, prays to the spirit Gatan, before the first dog is sacrificed, if a human head had not been taken, and offered at the sacred tree, ammadingan.

On the last day, a coconut is split in honor of the headhunter guardian, Anglabbang.The Pildap is an equivalent say-am but hosted by the poor.

[12] The Tingguians are further divided into 11 distinct subgroups which are the Adasen, Balatok, Banao, Belwang, Binongan, Gobang, Inlaud, Mabaka, Maeng, Masadiit and Moyadan.

Wealth and material possessions (such as Chinese jars, copper gongs called gangsa, beads, rice fields, and livestock) determine the social standing of a family or person, as well as the hosting of feasts and ceremonies.

[13] The Ilongot (or Ibilao) are a tribe who inhabit the southern Sierra Madre and Caraballo Mountains, on the east side of Luzon in the Philippines, primarily in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Ecija and along the mountain border between the provinces of Quirino and Aurora.

The Ilongots tend to inhabit areas close to rivers, as they provide a food source and a means for transportation.

Tabuk was settled in the 12th century, and from there other Kalinga settlements spread, practicing wet rice (papayaw) and swidden (uwa) cultivation.

Kalinga houses (furoy, buloy, fuloy, phoyoy, biloy) are either octagonal for the wealthy, or square, and are elevated on posts (a few as high as 20–30 feet), with a single room.

Teodoro Llamzon divided the Kalinga based on their dialects: Guinaang, Lubuagan, Punukpuk, Tabuk, Tinglayan, and Tanudan.

[15] The Kankanaey people (Kankanai or Kankana-ey) are native to Western Mountain Province, northern Benguet, northeastern La Union, and southeastern Ilocos Sur, with a population of 466,970 as of 2020.

Kankanaey houses include the two-story innagamang, the larger binangi, the cheaper tinokbob, and the elevated tinabla.

[27] Most of them are soldiers, policemen and government officials who are temporarily deployed in the area, but many have settled permanently as civilians retired from their posts and intermarried with the Mindanaoans of various ethnicities.

[38][39] Samuel E. Kane wrote about his life amongst the Bontoc, Ifugao, and Kalinga after the Philippine–American War in his book Thirty Years with the Philippine Head-Hunters (1933).

[40]: 317  Kane argued that Dean C. Worcester "did more than any one man to stop head-hunting and to bring the traditional enemy tribes together in friendship.

"[40]: 329  Kane wrote of the Igorot people, "there is a peace, a rhythm and an elemental strength in the life...which all the comforts and refinements of civilization can not replace...fifty years hence...there will be little left to remind the young Igorots of the days when the drums and ganzas of the head-hunting canyaos resounded throughout the land.

[42] In 1905, 50 tribespeople were on display at a Brooklyn, New York, amusement park for the summer, ending in the custody of the unscrupulous Truman Hunt, a showman "on the run across America with the tribe in tow.

"[43] On February 12, 1912, a Mountain Province Igorot chief named Gagaban became the first Filipino to fly in an airplane, riding as a passenger in a biplane called the "Red Devil" with Lee Hammond as the pilot.

After the declaration of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, the region became the focus of militarization as a result of local objections to the government's push for the Chico River Dam Project near Sadanga, Mountain Province, and Tinglayan, Kalinga.

848 in December 1975, constituting the municipalities of Lubuagan, Tinglayan, Tanudan, and Pasil into a "Kalinga Special Development Region" (KSDR),[55] in an effort to neutralize opposition to the Chico IV dam.

[54] On April 24, 1980, Marcos-controlled military forces assassinated Macli-ing Dulag, a pangat (leader) of the Butbut tribe of Kalinga.

[56] The assassination became a watershed moment, marking the first time the mainstream Philippine press could be openly critical against Marcos and the military, and building up a sense of Igorot identity.

[57] After the end of the Marcos administration due to the 1986 People Power Revolution, the succeeding government under President Corazon Aquino secured a ceasefire with the main indigenous armed group in the Cordilleras, the Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) led by Conrado Balweg.

The Aquino government made a sipat or indigenous treaty, which would be known as the Mount Data Peace Accord, with the CPLA on September 13, 1986, ending hostilities.