Editing Basilan (section)

===Ancient history===
The [[Yakan people]] arrived in the area of the [[Sulu Archipelago]], of which Basilan is a part, around 300 BCE to 200 BCE. Little is known of them before the era of Spanish colonization, but they still make up the largest ethnic group on the main island of Basilan. It is believed that the Yakan people of Basilan made contact with the Kingdom of [[Champa]] in present-day Vietnam, and many of them have ancestries from Champa settlers, who later integrated with the Yakan.

As the [[Tausūg people|Tausug]] [[Sultanate of Sulu]] grew in power, the Yakans withdrew inland, until most of the coastal communities along the island's southern, western and northwestern shores were primarily inhabited by Tausugs and their vassal tribes, the Samals and Bajaus (Tau-Laut). The only exception was the relatively prosperous Yakan communities of Lamitan.