Dansalan Quarterly’s third volume starts with historical narratives from Peter Gowing and Lloyd Van Vactor. Gowing’s essay focuses on the efforts of the United States Government to impose its rule upon the Muslim Filipino population of Mindanao and Sulu from 1899 to 1913. It shares a brief account on the life of the Moros at the time of the American arrival in the region. In a nutshell, the sovereignty of the United States over the whole region resulted in the altering of Moro cultures and politics. Such alteration came from U.S. Army generals who shaped and implemented policy towards the Muslim population, serving as America’s proconsuls in Moroland. Gowing also articulates some of the shortcomings of these proconsuls, and how all these connect to the contemporary situation of the Muslims in the region today. Strikingly different from the first essay, Van Vactor, in his article, talks about the experiences of American educators in Mindanao and Sulu, during a time when education served as the main weapon of Americans to colonize the Philippines. Van Vactor provides narratives from different educators, namely: Najeeb Saleeby, J. Scott McCormick, Edwin Kuder, Dr. Frank Laubach, and Mrs. Pearl Spencer telling stories about their experiences as an educator, a military officer and/or a missionary. At its core, this journal illustrates the efforts of the Americans to influence the trajectory and institutions of the Moro community, the challenges they faced, their shortcomings, and how their influence remains to this day.

Please email dansalan.quarterly@dcfi.edu.ph to request a copy of the issue.