![]() In 1991 there appeared to be a breakthrough. The Sentinelese have lived on their island for up to 55,000 years and have no contact with the outside world. Sometimes the Sentinelese appeared to make friendly gestures at others they would take the gifts into the forest and then fire arrows at the contact party. Such visits became more regular in the 1980s the teams would try to land, at a place out of the reach of arrows, and leave gifts such as coconuts, bananas and bits of iron. The Sentinelese speared the pigs and buried them, along with the doll. On one of these trips two pigs and a doll were left on the beach. These were often at the behest of dignitaries who wanted an adventure. It is mere conjecture, but might this experience account for the Sentinelese’s continued hostility and rejection of outsiders?ĭuring the 1970s the Indian authorities made occasional trips to North Sentinel in an attempt to befriend the tribe. It is not known how many Sentinelese became ill as a result of this ‘science’ but it’s likely that the children would have passed on their diseases and the results would have been devastating. The children were taken back to their island with a number of gifts. Predictably they soon fell ill and the adults died. After a few days they came across an elderly couple and some children who, ‘in the interest of science’ were taken to Port Blair, the island’s capital. ![]() They found recently abandoned villages and paths but the Sentinelese were nowhere to be seen. The party included trackers, from Andamanese tribes who had already made contact with the British, officers and convicts. Portman, the British ‘Officer in Charge of the Andamanese’ landed, with a large team, on North Sentinel Island in the hope of contacting the Sentinelese. © Christian Caron – Creative Commons A-NC-SA They attracted international attention in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami, when a member of the tribe was photographed on a beach, firing arrows at a helicopter which was checking on their welfare. The people who are seen on the shores of North Sentinel look proud, strong and healthy and at any one time observers have noted many children and pregnant women. The iron is sharpened and used to tip their arrows.įrom what can be seen from a distance, the Sentinelese islanders are clearly extremely healthy and thriving, in marked contrast to the Great Andamanese tribes to whom the British attempted to bring ‘civilization’. For instance, they now use metal which has been washed up or which they have recovered from shipwrecks on the island reefs. Their ways of life will have changed and adapted many times, like all peoples. There is no reason to believe the Sentinelese have been living in the same way for the tens of thousands of years they are likely to have been in the Andamans. © Survival InternationalĪlthough commonly described in the media as ‘Stone Age’ this is clearly not true. The Sentinelese enjoy excellent health, unlike those Andamans tribes whose lands have been destroyed. The men also wear necklaces and headbands, but with a thicker waist belt. The women wear fibre strings tied around their waists, necks and heads. They have two different types of houses large communal huts with several hearths for a number of families, and more temporary shelters, with no sides, which can sometimes be seen on the beach, with space for one nuclear family. It is thought that the Sentinelese live in three small bands. These can only be used in shallow waters as they are steered and propelled with a pole like a punt. ![]() ![]() Unlike the neighbouring Jarawa tribe, they make boats – these are very narrow outrigger canoes, described as ‘too narrow to fit two feet in’. The Sentinelese hunt and gather in the forest, and fish in the coastal waters. Even what they call themselves is unknown. Most of what is known about the Sentinelese has been gathered by viewing them from boats moored more than an arrows distance from the shore and a few brief periods where the Sentinelese allowed the authorities to get close enough to hand over some coconuts. North Sentinel Island, home of the Sentinelese, as seen from above. Survival International is the only organization fighting worldwide to stop the extermination of uncontacted tribes like the Sentinelese Please donate today→ ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |