The Saisiyat community’s origins in Taiwan

The first Chinese settlers only showed up in Taiwan 400 years ago, just a few years after the Mayflower landed in Plymouth Rock. Before that, Taiwan was home to the Austronesian  peoples. Some of these peoples would sail far away — settling places like Madagascar, Southeast Asia, and Hawaii. Others stayed until today — making up 16 officially recognized Indigenous groups in Taiwan. Some of them, such as the Saisiyat community, have stories of ancient peoples who shared the island with their ancestors, or maybe even got there before they did. From a village high up in the mountains of northern Taiwan, Ashish Valentine reports that researchers may be closing in on who the earliest people to settle the island may have been.