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 Around two centuries ago, southern Tsou tribes, the Hlasalua, were originally residents of a place in the Eastern Region of Taiwan called Hlasungag. The Tsous were attacked by the Bununs, so they began to migrate to the west. They traveled from the west bank of Laonong Creek (today's Baolai Creek Shidong Hot-spring area) to today's Taoyuan Township. The Southern Tsous were the earlest settlers in the township and the Bunun's began to migrate into these areas around 180 years ago from Nantou and Taitung regions.
Taoyuan Townhip's Bunun tribes are classified as the Isibukun. Currently the Bununs take up 90% of the total population of the township; it is now the largest ethnic group in the vicinity. several tribes have been developed from the original Bunun organizations, including the Jhongsinlun Tribe (Baoshan Village), Yushui Tribe (Jianshan Village), Bilan and Paijian Tribes (Gaojhong Village), Talalu and Yuaner Tribes (Taoyuan Village), Ruishui Tribe (Cinghe Village), Bibiyou Tribe (Fushing Village), Lapolan Tribe (Meilan Village), Lakus Tribe (Changshan Communit), and the Maswaer Tribe (Meishan Village).
In earlier times, the tribal settlers live in the remote mountains. During the Japanese Colonial Period, the Japanese settlers were intimidated by the aggression of the aborigines. Therefore, in the beginning, the Japanese government implemented the conciliation policies and set up police stations to manage the aboriginal tribes, but later on the Japanese enforced the settlement management policies and forcefully relocated the tribes to the current locations for convenient centralized control.
During the Japanese Colonial Period, Taoyuan Township was administered under the Liougui Branch Office, Cishan Prefecture, Kaohsiung State. At that time, the Gani Tribe settled in the Taoyuan area and the Japanese called it the Gani Community and the tribes were developed around the Yaer Station though scattered along the shores of Laonong Creek and the east range of Dachusishan on slope lands that are 700 to 1700 meters above sea level.
In the postwar era, the population of the township began to increase and the Repblic Government reorganized the "community" into a township in 1946. Since the Gani Tribe was the largest tribe at the time, the township was named the Gani Township. In October 1956, the Republic Government deemed the word "Gani" inappropriate, so the township was renamed the Taoyuan Township for its beauty and serenity of a lost paradise.
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