| Abstract | This work identifies some important preliminary considerations towards an understanding of the early peopling of southern Benguet, and the role of the Ibaloi in the foundation of the earliest settlements in the area. Although to date there is no information on the peoplinng of Benguet that may be regarded as conclusive, there are scattered descriptions of the Ibaloi as one of the indigenous groups of northern Luzon in ethnographies and ethnohistories written by Spanish and American writers. The locations of the earliest Ibaloi settlements have also been identified by Ibaloi oral traditions. Moreover, the Ibaloi have prominently figured in records of pre-hispanic lowland-upland trade as well as pan-Asian and world maritime trade, primarily because of the demand for Ibaloi gold. While there is general agreement in these sources that the Ibaloi originated from Pangasinan, the dating of the migration movements and the earliest settlements in these sources varies, depending on the data sets used.
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