What Killed Dr. William Jones?
by alex
I like to look at archival photos every once in awhile. There’s something about seeing images from the past that grips me. The long dead faces, and old–almost foreign–landscapes tell stories.
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Bernabe Amirol, a Filipino journalist I’ve worked with actually was forwarded the link to this page and it inspired him to also write about Jones, the Illongot tribe, and American interests during that period.
http://bernabealmirol.blogspot.com/2008/07/remembering-william-jones-can.html
He had visited the region himself and he presents more questions surrounding Jones’ purposes. Abe asks “Did Americans use the anthropological data gathered by Dr. Jones to complete the conquest of the Ilongot people?”
Check it out!
* * *
I met Abe just before I came back to Toronto from my last trip to the Phils last january. We were sent to cover events at an Australian-owned future gold mine in Didipio, Nuevo Vizcaya. Another story of a foreign interest in indigenous territory
Latikan has left a new comment on the post “Dr. William Jones: Anthropology and Conquest” (http://bernabealmirol.blogspot.com/2008/07/remembering-william-jones-can.html)
Dear Abe and Alex,
Nice coincidence! I have an ‘indigenous peoples Philippines’ google alert and blog of Alex appeared. Archives in the US really need to be unpacked. Please do continue the good work, both of you!
Cheers,
bernice
I digg this blog entry last month, thinking it happened somewhere in the old Cordillera, pero parang hindi yata, excuse my lack of knowledge of geography hehe. But i think this has a good connection naman with this book http://mountbreeze.blogspot.com/2008/08/did-americans-give-us-our-igorot.html
Thank you by the way, i like the old photos
Jerson
http://www.mountainprovince.net/news
http://www.mountainprovince.net
That’s great. You Googled a couple of articles and you have a nice little conclusion: “A Native that made good, but was still rejected, so he in turn goes and becomes a coloniser in mind and action in another land.” Such a nice conclusion! Two online articles and you get a neat little payoff. How long did it take you to Google? A few seconds? One minute? Great, on to the next morality play then…
You probably never intended it, but this entry is such a fitting response to your other entry, “What’s wrong with the Filipino people?” One possible answer: some of the people who should know better are just plain lazy.
Hi, Alex and readers:
As a researcher of the William Jones story and documentary filmmaker, I was delighted to see the copious amount of material lifted from my web page without so much as a mention of my name. Therefore, I request that you correct this omission by adding my name and giving credit where it is due.
The second concern is that the first four photos at the top of this blog are mislabeled. The capture individuals, I am quite certain, are NOT the Ilongot men who were convicted of killing William Jones. This error should be corrected also.
Thanx, Collis Davis
Hi Collis, you definitely have my sincere apologies for not having your name attached to those quotes, I don’t know how I could have forgotten that. I will correct that error.
About your second concern, the photos above are clearly captioned “Dr. William Jones’ killers in the custody of Filipino troops” in the U of W database. The photograph is credited to E. Murray Bruner.
My apologies again about only having a link to your site and not listing your name. I am correcting the situation now.
af
Alex, Maraming salamat po para sa quick reply mo. Sometimes photos get mislabeled even in some collections, but what gives me pause in this instance is name E. Murray Bruner. It happens that a Lt. Bruner was the best friend of Lt. Scheule, William Jones’ best friend among the Constabulary assigned to Quirino Province. I don’t know if Bruner himself mislabeled the photos in his old age before donating the photos to the Wisconsin collection. The men in the above photos are way too old to be the killers of Jones, and don’t resemble the men I have pictures of. I have photos of Bruner as well, but they don’t identify Bruner by his first name or middle initial. Maybe E. Murray Bruner is a different person than the Lt. Bruner I am familiar with. Anyway, thanks for postng this material on William Jones. I hope to have the film on Jones completed by the end of this year which is the centennial year of Jones’ death.
Collis
Collis, please let me know when the film is complete, I am fascinated by this story. I wonder now about those photos, it is from there that I was led to searching out more info on the matter…
BTW where are you based? I am off to the Phils very soon and will be visiting the Cordillera region and would love to meet you if you are based there.
All the best,
af
Hi, Alex,
Yes, I am based in the Philippines where I have retired along with my wife, a Filipina lady I met in Columbus, OH at OSU. Actually, I plan to interview Pedro Salgado, perhaps the last interview I will film for the documentary. When will you be here again? Surely we can meet. Collis
Cell fone 63-918-925-1507 Malate landline 63-2-567-4351
Hi alex,
Can you provide even some dilapidated ilongot picture (collection)? Thanks
thanks for the comments ‘ilongot.’
what do you mean by your question? would you like copies of the photos? you can get them (and many more) at the University of Wisconsin’s online archives.
Collis….Three years later and thanks to my son’s research, I’m reading your exchange, re. William Jones. My question also, have you completed your documentary film and is it available for purchase? The Sac and Fox Nation Library in Stroud, OK might be interested in having a copy. I am a fairly direct descendent of William Jones. My grandmother, Alice Mae Jones, was either a half-sister or a niece of Dr. Jones. I do have a copy of the biography done by Henry Milner Rideout, as does the Sac & Fox Library. Thank you…..very interesting.