This Indian Ocean Island Is Home To The Most Isolated People In The World

This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the authorities, as the Sentinelese people have long made clear their desire to be left alone. Even the tsunami didn’t convince the tribespeople that they needed assistance. But what do we know about these reclusive men and women living on a small stretch of land in the Indian Ocean?

Well, there are only a few things we can tell you for sure. The Sentinelese remain among the very last people to be almost completely uncontacted and untouched by wider civilization. That means parts of their way of life have stayed a mystery for tens of thousands of years. The Western world does not even know how big the tribe actually is. But there’s a good reason why you can’t just rock up onto the island and make friends with the Sentinelese.

For one, the people on the island aren’t shy of scaring off potential invaders. Apparently, they’ve been doing that since at least the 1200s. The tribespeople are even said to have had an encounter with one particularly famous explorer. And from his impression of the Sentinelese, you certainly wouldn’t want to mess with them.

On passing North Sentinel Island sometime in the late 1200s, Marco Polo described the natives as a “very cruel” people who would “eat every foreigner whom they can lay their hands upon.” That sounds harsh — and it may be a little inaccurate — but it laid the ground for the Sentinelese’s fearsome reputation.

And in the years that followed, the Sentinelese did little to diminish this. Quite the opposite, in fact. In 1867, for example, the survivors of a shipwreck sought refuge on North Sentinel Island – only to be heavily assaulted by the natives.

Things hadn’t improved a century later. That’s when the Indian government first launched a number of expeditions to try and communicate with the tribe. These interlopers were invariably met with hails of arrows and rocks.

Then, in 1974, a National Geographic documentary crew – alongside anthropologists and police officers – attempted to make contact with the tribespeople. And while the outsiders offered gifts and food to curry favor with the Sentinelese, the outcome was much the same. The film’s director was hit in the leg with an arrow, and the assembled crew had no option but to flee to safety.

It’s no wonder why the Indian government officially gave up trying to communicate with the Sentinelese. Then again, if these tribespeople are willing to fight to be left alone, it seems wise to grant them their wish. And another incident in 2006 showed just how far the islanders are willing to go to keep any outsiders away.

In January that year, a pair of middle-aged men were unlawfully fishing in the waters around the Sentinelese’s homeland. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, the two were hunting for mud crabs. But the men apparently sank into what was likely a drink-induced sleep – and they were unaware that their makeshift anchor had come loose.

The pair’s boat floated in the direction of the shore, and the warnings of other fishers apparently fell on deaf ears. Then, when the men strayed too near to the island, the natives attacked and slaughtered both of them. The tribespeople reportedly saw off any attempt to retrieve the men’s remains, too.

But the tribe may have a good reason for being hostile to outsiders. In 1879 a British expedition to the island was reportedly responsible for kidnapping half a dozen natives and holding them hostage.

The tribespeople quickly became ill, and the two oldest hostages died, according to a source from the time cited by Survival International. And although the rest of the group were reportedly returned to the tribe with gifts, the incident would surely have done little to inspire much trust in the wider world.

So, without the benefit of communication with the Sentinelese, what do we really know about the tribe’s way of life? Well, the only information available has been put together from snippets gathered during brief encounters with these mysterious people.

For one thing, it seems the Sentinelese have a talent for making use of metal. They have apparently been known to reclaim iron from shipwrecked vessels – presumably for the purpose of creating tools.

The tribespeople are also thought to lead hunter-gatherer lifestyles, free from agriculture. But we can’t say for sure how many Sentinelese are sustained through this existence. Population estimates on North Sentinel Island range from anywhere between 40 to 500.

And despite the 2004 tsunami causing changes to their environment, the Sentinelese survived and made do in the aftermath. Certainly, the tribespeople were still strong – and equipped – enough to dish out grisly ends for the fishermen who washed up on their shore in 2006.

Then, in November 2018, an American named John Allen Chau arrived in the area in the hope of visiting the island and living amongst its inhabitants. Chau, a devout Christian, sought to adopt the language of the Sentinelese and convert them to his religion. He, too, was killed by the tribespeople.

Today, though, a three-mile exclusion zone protects North Sentinel Island – so a visit from anyone is probably off the cards. And given that two other similarly located tribes – the Onge and the Great Andamanese – have seen their populations plummet after contact with Westerners, perhaps it’s best that way.

We do know one reason why tribes such as the Sentinelese strive to protect their territories: sometimes, they can find themselves in grave danger. Given that indigenous people often live in areas with useful resources, the very ground they walk can be sought after. And when a group of illegal miners came across a lost tribe in the Amazon rainforest, a sickening turn of events apparently transpired.

In a bar in Brazil, close to the Colombian border, a group of illegal miners are spinning seemingly tall tales. The miners claim that in the wilds of the Amazon they encountered a lost tribe – one of the few communities on Earth still untouched by the modern world. Then, as their story unfolds, they start to brag about having done something truly horrifying.

From its mist-shrouded mountains to the thick swathes of the Amazon jungle, Brazil has always been a wild and beautiful place. Ever since Europeans arrived there at the dawn of the 16th century, though, there have been outsiders present – keen to exploit the country’s abundant natural resources.

At first, Europeans began exporting Brazil’s Paubrasilia trees, known for their ability to produce a precious red dye. Then the colonists started transforming large tracts of the land into sugar plantations. They enslaved the native peoples and shipped their crops across the world.

However, these developments paled in comparison to the gold rush and the rubber boom of the 18th and 19th centuries. Keen to get their hands on these valuable resources, Portuguese buccaneers began exploring the uncharted interior of the country.

Wherever they went, the settlers left destruction in their wake, decimating the landscape and destroying the indigenous way of life. Sadly, some 300 years later, little has changed. Although there are no more Portuguese bandeirantes, their legacy is difficult to ignore.

Today, more than 20 percent of the lush green Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed. In response, the local government has put regulations in place to control deforestation. Yet illegal operations continue in a region that is notoriously difficult to police.

The tribes that call the Amazon their home have found their territory growing ever smaller. The depths of the forest do, however, still conceal communities that have no contact at all with the outside world. But their numbers are in decline.

According to experts, there are around 100 uncontacted tribes in the Amazon today. Sadly, though, they are under constant threat from hostile outsiders who can easily outmatch them with firearms and who have the potential to carry diseases previously unknown to them. Concern for these communities is in fact so great that Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, or FUNAI, operates an entire department dedicated to their protection.

However, some believe that the Brazilian government is not doing enough. In fact, in April 2017 a lack of funding forced FUNAI to shut down five bases that were being used to defend and monitor uncontacted tribes. Now only 14 remain – and even those have been hit by staffing cuts.

Three of these closed bases were apparently located in the Javari Valley, a vast 33,000-square-mile territory in remote western Brazil. And given that it is the second biggest reserve in the entire country, more uncontacted tribes are thought to live there than in any other place on the planet.

However, with the withdrawal of what few resources had been allocated to protect them, these tribes now face an uncertain fate. In a sobering reflection of what could be in store, September 2017 saw a horrifying story emerge from the wilds of the Javari Valley.

Several weeks before, an unnamed individual had apparently been in a bar close to the border with Colombia when they overheard a group of prospectors recounting a then-recent experience in the valley. In Brazil, these illegal miners – called garimpeiros – are known for the destruction that they wreak across the Amazon.

According to reports, the miners in question were bragging about their encounter with an uncontacted tribe – and it was shocking, to say the least. Apparently, they had attacked and slain ten indigenous people. The garimpeiros also reportedly claimed that after the massacre, they dumped the bodies in the Jandiatuba River – though not before carving them into pieces to ensure that they sank to the riverbed.

The garimpeiros allegedly had more than just their words to support these horrific claims, too. According to reports, they also produced jewelry and tools that had once belonged to the members of the tribe. Understandably troubled by the miners’ stories, then, the witness managed to record their conversation.

When the recording was then turned over to the authorities, an investigation began. However, it has been plagued by difficulties. Perhaps most significant is the remoteness of the place where the crimes are alleged to have taken place. Indeed, it can only be reached following an arduous 12-hour boat journey into the Amazon.

“We are following up, but the territories are big and access is limited,” lead prosecutor Pablo Luz de Beltrand told The New York Times in September 2017. “These tribes are uncontacted – even FUNAI has only sporadic information about them. So it’s difficult work that requires all government departments working together.”

Investigators are still struggling to gather details of the crime from a community that is isolated and distrustful of outsiders. Meanwhile, indigenous rights organization Survival International has claimed that the incident may have wiped out a significant portion of a tribe – and that the government only has itself to blame.

Campaigner Sarah Shenker told The New York Times, “If the investigation confirms the reports, it will be yet another genocidal massacre resulting directly from the Brazilian government’s failure to protect isolated tribes – something that is guaranteed in the Constitution.”

It was just one in a line of problems that plagued the unpopular former president Michel Temer. After cutting funding and opening up Amazon reserves to miners, he faced criticism from a wide range of groups. “We had problems with previous governments, but not like this,” Leila Silvia Burger Sotto-Maior, a FUNAI coordinator, told The New York Times.

And although the case is still ongoing, the incident has raised concerns among activists that similar crimes may be going unreported. Survival International communications officer Carla de Lello Lorenzi told The Washington Post, “It’s the uncontacted versus illegal miners, who think they can get away with anything. Unfortunately, a lot of the time they do.”