Page 10-Tuesday, May 16, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Stone Age tribe ound in volcano
MANILA, Philippines (AP)-A tribe
of primitive cave-dwellers wearing
loincloths made of hammered bark has
been discovered living inside the
creator of an extinct volcano in the
jungle wilderness of the Philippines,
the government announced yesterday.
A government spokesman said
President Ferdinand Marcos visited
the area, 430 miles southwest of Manila,
during the day by helicopter.
The spokesman did not say who
discovered the tribe or when they were
found. He said it could not be
established if the tribe, which has been
the subject of legends, had ever been
in contact with other people.
The crater is located in Palawan
province on a 70-mile-long island that
juts out into the South China Sea. The
crater area is remote, surrounded by
deep ravines and gorges and accessible
only by helicopter, the spokesman said.
THE PALACE announcement said
the tribe, whom it called "Taotbato", or
stone people, lived in caves clustered at
different levels on the walls of the
crater. The men and bare-breasted
women wore loincloths made of poun-
ded bark.
The palace said the tribe is com-
prised of 30 families, but it did not give
the tribe's total population.
For food, the caved dwellers engaged
in rough forms of agriculture, planting
casava, sweet potato and other root
crops in the fertile valley more than
1,000 feet below the crater's mile-wide
rim.
Their source of water is a river that
flows through the valley from a huge
cave, the palace said.
ANOTHER GROUP of cave dwellers,
the stone-age Tasady, was discovered
in 1971 in a rain forest in the center of
Mindanao Island in the southern
Philippines. The Tasadays numbered
only 28 persons when discovered and
had fashioned loincloths out of the
broad leaves of a ground orchid.
They did not practice any form of
agriculture, but depended only on wild
tubers and the pith of a palm for food.
At the time, the only tools they had
were crudely fashioned out of stone.
Scientific circles say it is premature
at this time to say if the Taotbato's
discovery is of any major significance.
After the Tasadays were discovered in
1971, anthropologists said they would
not be surprised if similar primitive
people were found in other remote
areas of the Philippines.
The palace did not say what kind of
tools the Taothatos used.
BUT IN STARK contrast to the
Tasadays, the Taotbatos apparently
grew some kind of tobacco, wore multi-
colored necklaces that appeared to be
made of beads and built fires by rub-
bing two stones together, using dried
moss as tinder.
Marcos said the men were sturdy with
well-proportioned bodies and
averaged about five feet in height.
No other details of the tribe's culture
were released. A palace spokesman
said more information in Marco's
possession still had to be sorted out.
These are the women of the Taotbato tribe, recently discovered living in an
extinct volcano in the Phillipines. They wear loincloths made from pounded
tree bark and exist mainly on root crops.
Marco's wife Imelda accompanied sultant of the Philippine government,
him on the trip, as well as his daughter, Dr. Robert Fox, dug up a man's
Irene, Manuel Elizalde, the presiden- fossilized skull in one of the caves in
tial assistant of national minorities, and 1962. Tests on the skull, called "Tabon
Dr. Jesus Peralta, curator of the man," have proven it to be 24,000 years
national museum and an American- old, the palace said.
trained anthropologist. Five photographs of the tribe
The settlement is located south of a released to the press were personally
newwork of about 200 caves where chosen by Marcos, the spokesman said.
government anthropologists found pct- Minority minister Elizalde and the
tery, jewelry, primitive tools and other archeologist Peralta, along with some
antifacts believed to be thousands of photographers, stayed behind in the
years old. valley for more studies, the spokesman
An American archeological con- said.
Union dissidents seek IFitzsimmon's ouster
WASHINGTON (UPI) - Teamsters
Union dissidents charged yesterday the
11-year leadership of President Frank
Fitzsimmons has been "riddled with
corruption" and said they would ask a
union disciplinary panel today to oust
him.
The five-member panel appointed by
the Teamsters General Executive
Board has scheduled a closed hearing
to consider the charges brought by four
rank-and-file members and PROD, a
union reform group established in 1971.
PROD filed the action in April, 1977.
Fitzsimmons was expected to attend
the hearing and respond to questions
from both the panel and PROD mem-
bers. The Teamsters organization had
no comment Monday on the allegations.
Fitzsimmons, 70, assumed the union
presidency in March, 1967, when for-
mer president Jimmy Hoffa was jailed
for jury tampering and has held the of-
fice since.
HE IS facing his second union
disciplinary hearing in four years.
In 1974, PROD tried to force Fit-
zsimmons to reimburse the union
treasury for $25,000 that was donated to
the Citizens Committee for Fairness to
the Presidency, a group created by
Rabbi Baruch Korff to aid former
President Richard Nixon.
The General Executive Board
exonerated Fitzsimmons of any
wrongdoing in that case.
In a 94-page "bill of particulars"
released Monday by PROD, a series of
charges were levied against Fitzsim-
mons, including accusations that he en-
couraged ties with organized crime,
engaged in nepotism, overpayed union
officials and generally allowed a
lucrative lifestyle for union officials.
THE charges alleged Fitzsimmons
appointed or arranged the appointment
of a number of disreputable in-
dividuals, "many of whom are widely
reported to have Mafia connections."
It said Fitzsimmons' leadership
brought "a pattern of sweetheart con-
tracts" between the Teamsters and the
nation's freight trucking industry,
which it said has eroded collectiv
bargaining rights.
"Under General President Frank E.
Fitzsimmons, the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters has become
riddled with corruption," the document
said. "Mr. Fitzsimmons has' brought
disgrace to the union and its two million
members and has undermined its
political integrity."
BOB Windrem, research director for
PROD, said his group was asking that
Fitzsimmons "be removed as president
and expelled from the union."
"We don't know what to expect, in all
fairness to the hearing panel," Win-
drem said. "We are seeking justice and
we would be pleasantly surprised if we
received it."
Windrem said the union disallowed
an attempt by PROD to include in the
complaint charges of widespread
abuses of the Teamsters Central States
Pension Fund, which has led to the
mass resignation of trustees, including
Fitzsimmons, and is the subject of a
federal civil suit seeking recovery of
hundreds of millions of dollars squan-
dered on bad loans.
'BRASS TARGET'
NEW YORK (AP) - Actor Edward
Herrmann will portray an Army
colonel in MGM's upcoming film
"Brass Target," which also features
Sophia Loren, John Cassavetes, Max
Von Sydow, Patrick McGoohan, Robert
Vaughn and Bruce Davison.
Hermann, who appeared in "The
Betsy," starred as F.D.R. in "Eleanor
and Franklin" and "Eleanor and
Franklin: The White House Years," for
which he received Emmy nominations.
He was named Best Actor in 1977 by the
T.V.Critics Circle for his "White House
Years" performance.
The Ann Arbor Film Cooperative
presents at AUD. A Tuesday, May 16-ADMISSIONFREE
THE DAWN PATROL
(Howard Hawks, 1930) 7 ONLY-AUD. A
This was ex-pilot Hawks' first sound film and one of the best of the genre, for
superior to the 1938 remake. Dealing with the conflicts and loyalties among-a
group of doomed British World War I aviators, Hawks focuses on the problem
of moral responsibility in the crucible of action. Highlighted by stunning dog:
fight scenes and fine ensemble acting. With RICHARD BARTHELMESS, DOUGLAS
FAIRBANKS, JR.
THE CROWD ROARS
(Howard Hawks, 1932) 8:40 ONLY-AUD. A
Howard Hawks also spent some time as a pro auto racer and it shows in this
rarely seen thriller. CAGNEY plays a racer jealous of his once-innocent brother
who begins to acquire the same values of liquor and women which Cagney
made an indispensable part of his tightrope existence. The combination of
Cagney and Hawks is truly kinetic.
Tomorrow: "COUSIN, COUSINE"
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