While the current policy tries to preserve their culture, it was not always like that and other tribes from the Andaman Islands faced extinction. So protective are the Sentinelese of their territory that an Indian coastguard helicopter that attempted to retrieve the fishermen’s bodies (they had been tossed into shallow beach graves after their killing) was greeted by a volley of arrows from the tribesmen that prevented the craft from landing.īut their hostile attitude towards strangers probably saved them from extinction over the centuries. This violent response is part of a pattern of violence that has marked most attempts at contact by outsiders with this tribe over the centuries.īelieved to number anywhere from 50 to 400, the Sentinelese have lived in isolation on the island for 60,000 years, resisting attempts by authorities and anthropologists to study their culture and integrate them into the modern world.Īnd when someone wanders to their island, like it happened for two fishermen on January 26, 2006, they relentlessly murder them. They rejected all types of communication with outsiders repeatedly and they protect their land violently when anybody wants to establish contact. But the Sentinelese people who inhabit the tiny island of North Sentinel that is part of the Andaman group of islands in the Bay of Bengal are living proof to the contrary. In a world of rapid urbanization, we often assume there are no tribes left isolated without external contact on Earth. Home of the last known isolated tribe, the Sentinelese
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