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The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

The Most Isolated People in the World

A Sentenilese man wards off a helicopter flying over the island.
A Sentenilese man wards off a helicopter flying over the island.

The Sentinelese tribe, located on the Andaman Islands, off the coast of India, is perhaps the most isolated group of people in the world. They are so ancient, they are thought to be directly descended from the first people who migrated out of Africa, and to have lived on those islands isolated from the world for more than 60,000 years. But this does not mean they live in the “Stone Age”. The Sentinelese people do, in fact, make weapons from metal which they acquire from ships that have wrecked on the reefs surrounding the island. Because they have had such little contact with other humans for so many years, all attempts to establish contact between the island and the outside world have ended in disaster, because the Sentinelese have such a different language than any linguist has encountered.

In the spring of 1974, a National Geographic film crew came to their island, in what turned out to be the most unsuccessful expedition made, to the island. The National Geographic team was filming a documentary, Man in Search of Man. They were accompanied by armed police officers and a photographer. When their boat broke through the barrier reefs, locals on the island emerged from the jungle, and responded with a curtain of arrows. The boat landed at a point on the coast out of range of the arrows and the police, dressed in jackets with padded armor, landed and left gifts in the sand; a miniature plastic car, some coconuts, a live pig tied, a doll, and aluminum cookware.The policemen returned to the boat and waited to see the locals’ reaction to the gifts. The reaction was to launch another round of arrows, one of which struck the documentary director in the left thigh. The man who wounded the director laughed proudly, sitting in the shade while other locals speared, then buried, the pig and the doll. Afterwards, everyone left, taking with them only the coconuts and aluminum cookware.

This is only one of the many failed encounters the world has had with the tribe. Even after the hurricane in 2004, a helicopter was sent in to check on the well being of the islanders, but was warned off by a man brandishing a bow and arrow in a threatening manner.

The world may never know what actually goes on on the island, but one thing is for certain; the Sentinelese people do not want, need or require our help to live. They have been successful since the beginning of man, and at this point, they will continue to be successful until the end of man.