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American 'killed in India by endangered Andamans tribe'


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To think we live in 2018 yet we still have endangered people like these around the world, this is a long read but a fascinating one to me. 

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An American is reported to have been killed by an endangered tribe in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Fishermen who took the man to North Sentinel island say tribespeople shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach.

Local media say he was a missionary. He has been identified as John Allen Chau.

Contact with indigenous Andaman tribes living in isolation from the world is illegal. Estimates say the Sentinelese number between only about 50 and 150.

Seven fishermen have been arrested for illegally ferrying the American to the island, police say.

Local media have reported that he wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them.

"Police said Chau had previously visited North Sentinel island about four or five times with the help of local fishermen," journalist Subir Bhaumik, who has been covering the islands for years, told BBC Hindi.

"The number of people belonging to the Sentinelese tribe is so low, they don't even understand how to use money. It's, in fact, illegal to have any sort of contact with them."

In 2017, the Indian government also said taking photographs or making videos of the aboriginal Andaman tribes would be punishable with imprisonment of up to three years.

 

Firing arrows at helicopters

Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi

I first heard of the Sentinelese in 2004 just after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.

I was at the daily press briefing by the authorities a few days later when we were told that the members of the isolated tribes had survived.

A navy helicopter on patrol had flown over the North Sentinel island of the archipelago where the Sentinelese live to check on them.

As they descended a bit to take a closer look, members of the tribe began firing arrows at them.

"So we knew that they were safe," the pilot told us.

The Sentinelese are often described as the most dangerous tribe in the world. They were among the first people to successfully migrate out of Africa and scientists believe they came to the Andaman islands 60,000 years ago.

In 2006, campaign group Survival International said the tribe had killed two fishermen who had illegally tried to enter their island.

Presentational grey line

The AFP news agency quoted a source as saying that Chau had tried and failed to reach the island on 14 November. But then he tried again two days later.

"He was attacked by arrows but he continued walking.

"The fishermen saw the tribals tying a rope around his neck and dragging his body. They were scared and fled," the report added.

Chau's body was spotted on 20 November. According to the Hindustan Times, his remains have yet to be recovered.

"It's a difficult case for the police," says Mr. Bhaumik. "You can't even arrest the Sentinelese."

A global organization like London-based Survival International have been campaigning to protect the indigenous tribes living in the Andamans.

The group's international director, Stephen Corry, called the incident a "tragedy" that "should never have been allowed to happen".

"The Sentinelese have shown again and again that they want to be left alone, and their wishes should be respected," he said. "The British colonial occupation of the Andaman Islands decimated the tribes living there, wiping out thousands of tribespeople, and only a fraction of the original population now survive. So the Sentinelese fear of outsiders is very understandable."

The two endangered aboriginal Andaman tribes - the Jarawa and the Sentinelese - are hunter-gatherers, and contact with the outside world would put them at risk of contracting a disease.

The Sentinelese are particularly vulnerable: their complete isolation means they are likely to have no immunity to even common illnesses such as flu and measles.

"It's not impossible that the Sentinelese have just been infected by deadly pathogens to which they have no immunity, with the potential to wipe out the entire tribe," said Mr. Corry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-46286215

 
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This tribe lives on an island, which was meters under water for days after 2004 Tsunami. A team on a helicopter went after the island came back up on surface to see if they they survived only to be arrows being shot at them one of which hit the camera mans thigh. 

How did they survived guess we will never know. 

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7 minutes ago, Azeem said:

This tribe lives on an island, which was meters under water for days after 2004 Tsunami. A team on a helicopter went after the island came back up on surface to see if they they survived only to be arrows being shot at them one of which hit the camera mans thigh. 

How did they survived guess we will never know. 

I have heard about these, how they are very hostile to outsiders. I had a feeling this would be the tribe before I clicked on the thread.

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In that story, they highlighted this one also, full story after the video with the link...

Last Survivor: The story of the 'world's loneliest man'

Extremely rare video footage has emerged of a tribe member who has been called the "loneliest man in the world".

The 50-something man has been living alone in the Brazilian Amazon for 22 years after the last members of his tribe were murdered.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-44901055

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12 minutes ago, Azeem said:

This tribe lives on an island, which was meters under water for days after 2004 Tsunami. A team on a helicopter went after the island came back up on surface to see if they they survived only to be arrows being shot at them one of which hit the camera mans thigh. 

How did they survived guess we will never know. 

 

7 minutes ago, CaaC - John said:

Bloody hell, they must have used rafts or canoes whatever to survive, amazing.  

These are the tribes that have been living in wilderness for tens thousands of years; they certainly have traditional collective knowledge about Nature, know the signs of incoming tsunamis after an earthquake, and how to react to it (i.e. escape to higher ground)... That's what other isolated (friendlier) tribes in nearby islands relied on when the tsunami hit, so I'm sure the Sentinelese did the same to survive it.

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14 hours ago, Stan said:

@IgnisExcubitor what's your alibi?

Me and my five wives were checking on our farms on the other side of the island. 

 

@topic.

On a serious note, turns out he was a missionary hoping to convert them, which is daft beyond anything. 

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/want-declare-jesus-them-wrote-us-missionary-killed-andaman-tribe-91993?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Even our navy is not allowed to reach out to these tribals. They might also not be able to retrieve his body. Also the fisherman, whom he bribed and helped him, have been arrested. Serves them right. 

 

The worst thing about this is that this idiot has probably released pathogens, which will probably kill few of those tribals because they aren’t immune to them. 

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17 hours ago, nudge said:

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes...

 

17 hours ago, Azeem said:

This tribe lives on an island, which was meters under water for days after 2004 Tsunami. A team on a helicopter went after the island came back up on surface to see if they they survived only to be arrows being shot at them one of which hit the camera mans thigh. 

How did they survived guess we will never know. 

You think this might have been a clue as to the likelihood of a warm handshake upon arrival... He probably tried to flog them a load of back issues of the Watchtower and wouldn't leave until he had got them all to sign up for a monthly subscription... 

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What an idiot xD He was shot at the day before...but decided to go back. He was pretty much asking to be killed...I have no sympathy for him.

"They [the Sentinelese] are not immune to anything,” said PC Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University. “A simple thing like flu can kill them.”

Professor Joshi has studied the islands where the Sentinelese people live, and described John’s religious mission as "a foolish adventure.”

“He invited that aggression,” he said.

Extracts from John’s diary, released by his family, have revealed details of his final days before being slain by the tribespeople, The Australian reports. One entry describes his first attempt to come ashore, the day before his death, and tells of how the Bible literally saved him as an incoming arrow pierced the book.

“I heard the whoops and shouts from the hunt,” he wrote. “I made sure to stay out of arrow range… I tried to parrot their words back to them. They burst out laughing… I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you’.”

Far from worrying about the dangers he might pose to the tribespeople, John reflected on how noble his quest to indoctrinate them into the Christian faith was.

“This is not a pointless thing. The eternal lives of this tribe is at hand and I can’t wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping in their own language,” he wrote. He did express fear for his own safety, however, admitting that his mission “almost seems like certain death” and telling God that “If you want me to get actually shot or even killed with an arrow then so be it.

“I think I could be more useful alive, though,” he added.

In a letter to his parents, John urged that they should “not be angry at them [the Sentinelese] or at God if I get killed”.

“You guys might think I’m crazy but I think it’s worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people,” he wrote. “God, I don’t want to die.”

Within hours of writing this he was dead.

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@Azeem has a point, but it's about the British Navy and the then British government. 

I read this interesting little story today, as to why the Sentinelese are hostile towards the outsiders. 

Apparently, in 1880 they came in contact with British Royal Navy commander, Maurice Vidal Portman. 

Portman was tasked to gain control of the Andamans. Predictably he used force and got control on some parts of the islands and in doing so brought the other tribes, (he believed they were Jarawas but apparently they were the Great Andamenese and Onges) under his control, before developing a hobby of documenting their bodies, but being weirdly obsessed with their genitals. There are detailed notes written by him talking about their genitals with pictures of the naked tribals. Dude was obsessed. 

Anyways, eventually he got to the North Sentinelese (the tribe in news) to capture them but they escaped and hid themselves. Portman was only able to capture an old couple and few children. The old couple quickly died of common disease while the children were returned back to the island after a few days. Don't know what the children endured from this pervert, but the Sentinelese continued to hide or exhibit aggressive behaviour to outsiders ever since. 

The only known contact happened in 1990 (after failed attempts in the 60s and 70s) when they accepted coconuts from visiting anthropologists. But after accepting the coconuts they started threatening the anthropologists, ordering them to leave.

The government finally gave up on contacting them and decided to leave them alone and protect their island. 

The Jarawas, Onges have been more welcoming of the outsiders. Unfortunately that has resulted in their rapid decline in numbers, due to diseases or inability to adjust to modern ways. For example, Jarawas, whose lands have been opened for eco tourism are now reduced to begging. 

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2 minutes ago, IgnisExcubitor said:

I read this interesting little story today, as to why the Sentinelese are hostile towards the outsiders. 

FFS I read that earlier on and the internet went down and I lost the link of the article but you were spot on what you posted, the bit about  "The old couple quickly died of common disease while the children were returned back to the island after a few days..." summarises it all, the children returned and more than likely died from diseases contracted from the perverts.  

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