How People From an Uncontacted Island Tribe Made Me Doubt My Faith

“Satan’s last stronghold” lies around 700km west of the Southern tip of Myanmar.

Photo by Adrian Smith on Unsplash

American ‘killed in India by endangered Andaman tribe’

Hah, so an uncontacted tribe killed an American trying to contact them, right?

Poor guy… but what did he expect?

I still remember the headline, and my reaction to it.

That BBC news article was a novelty and a curiosity for me… as most news is, when you don’t actually live the headline.

My curiosity dragged me into the article, raising questions as it did so: Who was this ‘endangered Andaman tribe’? Why are they endangered? Who was the American? And what were they doing that ended in their death?

For four quick questions, I found four quick answers.

1. The tribespeople were the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island, one of an island group south-east of India — closer to Myanmar, if anything. Technically, the islands are Indian.
2. The Sentinelese are endangered because they live on a tiny island that is not large enough to support a population of more than about 200. Furthermore, they have been there and remained…