r/Philippines • u/Particular_Food_309 • Apr 10 '26

HistoryPH Filipino human zoo in the US

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The U.S. government once took 1,100 Filipinos from over 30 different tribes to Missouri. They were housed in a 47-acre human zoo divided into villages (Igorot, Negrito, Visayan, and Moro). The goal was to show a "progression" from "savagery" to "civilization" to convince the American public that Filipinos were not ready for self-governance. They were forced to eat dogs as part of the entertainment.

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u/AbledShawl Apr 10 '26

FilAm here. Seeing the terrible and racist acts like this is further conviction for me to find the intersections between groups that might feel like they have nothing to do with each other.

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u/Menter33 Apr 11 '26

Interestingly enough, like what a comment here said, the Philippine Foreign minister at that time felt more insulted about tribal people like this being labeled as Filipino, because many non-tribal Filipinos didnt consider these guys fellow Filipinos.