Butuanon

The Butuanon are a Visayan group of the Agusan River delta in northeastern Mindanao, heirs to one of the Philippines' earliest recorded polities. Their Rajahnate of Butuan, Puduan in Chinese annals, was a gold-mining port whose balangay boats sailed as far as China and Majapahit; a tributary mission reached the Song court in 1001, and a later envoy presented a gold-tablet memorial.

Chinese annals record Brunei conquering Butuan in 1304, before it regained freedom. In 1521 the Butuan rajah Siagu attended the first Catholic mass in the Philippines at Limasawa with Ferdinand Magellan's men.

Legazpi granted Butuan as an encomienda in 1571, and a Jesuit mission opened its first church in 1597, as old Hindu, Buddhist and animist beliefs gave way to Catholicism. Their Butuanon language is a Southern Visayan tongue close to Surigaonon.