The tribe fired a volley of arrows at a helicopter sent to retrieve the men’s bodies.

In 2006, two Indian fishermen who moored their boat to sleep were killed when the vessel broke loose and drifted on to the shore, according to Survival International, a tribal rights advocacy group. The Sentinelese people violently resist contact with outsiders. Starting in the 1960s, anthropologists – protected by armed guards – succeeded first in exchanging gifts, then conducting field visits with the tribe, but abandoned their efforts around 25 years ago. They are thought to have had no contact with surrounding communities since 1991. North Sentinel Island is about 20 sq miles and the Sentinelese are estimated to number about 100 people. They were colonised by the UK in the 1850s and used as a penal colony, including for Indian dissidents and freedom fighters involved in the 1857 uprising against British rule.Īnthropologists have evidence human life existed on the Andamans at least 2,000 years ago, while genome studies suggest the four native tribes on the islands – of which the Sentinelese are the most isolated – are at least 30,000 years old. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are scattered across the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Later they said he was taken deeper and buried.” He added: “The fishermen who were back in the dinghy saw an arrow hit him.

He said Chau, who some Christian groups have claimed was a missionary, had been trying to find ways to reach North Sentinel Island and finally succeeded on Saturday, taking a dinghy with the fishermen, then completing the rest of the journey by kayak. “The fishermen in the dinghies tried to warn him it’s a risky thing,” said Denis Giles, an activist for the rights of tribal groups and a journalist on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Indian territory where the incident took place. John Allen Chau, 26, is believed to have paid fishermen to ferry him to North Sentinel Island, home to a 30,000-year-old tribe known to aggressively repel outsiders. Members of an isolated Indian tribe armed with bows and arrows have killed an American who encroached on their remote island, police said.

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