Today (July 10) is the birth anniversary of this man: William Henry Scott. A man who dedicated a huge chunk of his life researching, studying, and recording Igorot/Cordillera history and culture. If you read scholarly work on Igorots, his articles and books often come up.
His friends and colleagues called him Scotty. Although known primarily as a historian, he was also an anthropologist, linguist, teacher and activist (he was arrested and detained during the Marcos regime). He is a widely cited source when it comes to scholarship on the history of the Igorots and the Cordilleras.
Scott has written numerous articles and books about Igorot/Cordillera history. These include the following:
1. The Discovery of the Igorots: Spanish Contacts with Pagans of Northern Luzon
2. Of Igorots and Independence: Two Essays
3. A Sagada Reader
4. On the Cordillera
On October 4, 1993, Scott passed away at a hospital in Quezon City following what was supposed to be a routine surgical operation.
He physically left but he also left behind a body of scholarly work that will keep his legacy intact for generations to come. Scott was buried at a cemetery in Sagada, Mountain Province.
