American missionary shot full of arrows on remote island

[Bevo 13601]

 

[bolverk 29727]

One thing that is absolutely insane is how NOT isolated that island is. I finally decided to check it out on Google Earth, and the island is less than 20 miles offshore South Andaman Island, whose capital Port Blair has a population of over 100,000 and has an international airport. And it's not like Port Blair itself is that far away. Right now, I'm having to eyeball it on my phone, I'd say the city is about 35 miles away as the crow flies.

It's absolutely stunning that, over all, outsiders have been respectful enough to leave them alone - notwithstanding the shower of arrows. But still, you get my point. Modern civilization could've easily plowed them under by now.

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

9 minutes ago, bolverk said:

One thing that is absolutely insane is how NOT isolated that island is. I finally decided to check it out on Google Earth, and the island is less than 20 miles offshore South Andaman Island, whose capital Port Blair has a population of over 100,000 and has an international airport. And it's not like Port Blair itself is that far away. Right now, I'm having to eyeball it on my phone, I'd say the city is about 35 miles away as the crow flies.

It's absolutely stunning that, over all, outsiders have been respectful enough to leave them alone - notwithstanding the shower of arrows. But still, you get my point. Modern civilization could've easily plowed them under by now.

I wonder what the islanders think of airplanes ?

[bolverk 29727]

Yeah, no shit. I can only imagine how they've incorporated their encounters and modern technology into their religion.

[Hate 20146]

South Sentinel is absolutely fascinating to me. I used to spend hours combing over it on Google Earth just to see if I could find something. As someone posted, they don't use fire. There's speculation that they wait for lightning to strike and then try to keep any embers that result burning as long as possible. 
When the 2004 tsunami hit, the island was completely submerged. Afterwards, the Indian government sent someone to check on the Sentinelese because, hey, they've GOT to be dead, right? When the helicopter was flying low over a portion of the jungle, the Sentinelese came running out of the jungle to shoot arrows at it. Nobody has any idea how the fuck they made it through that one, but it apparently didn't put much of a dent in their population.
Anyway... fuck this guy. One poorly placed sneeze and he could have wiped everyone on the island out. I'm actually worried that something like that might happen anyway, because they dragged his body off into the forest. Hopefully, he wasn't carrying anything.

I remember a story about the islands after the 2004 tsunami and they reported that there were no known deaths on the island as a result of the tsunami. They learned that the tribe had an old folklore story that had been passed down through the generations that when the ground shakes the people go up.

[Guest]

Without the Weather Channel there to freak them out first?

 

Weird...

[FondrenRoad 4378]

1 hour ago, bolverk said:

Yeah, no shit. I can only imagine how they've incorporated their encounters and modern technology into their religion.

Their hostility indicates that they don't find unknown technology to be "godlike."  Which is somewhat rare, I would think. It would be really interesting to learn their religion and to see if it plays a role in their hostility.  If they have a deified leader, you would think they would have had at least one reformer in 500 years that wanted to open trade. Maybe a sacred tree?

There was probably some undocumented encounter with outsiders that devastated them and has been passed down as a horror story for generations there. 

[bolverk 29727]

11 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

Their hostility indicates that they don't find unknown technology to be "godlike."  Which is somewhat rare, I would think. It would be really interesting to learn their religion and to see if it plays a role in their hostility.  If they have a deified leader, you would think they would have had at least one reformer in 500 years that wanted to open trade. Maybe a sacred tree?

There was probably some undocumented encounter with outsiders that devastated them and has been passed down as a horror story for generations there. 

Definitely not a cargo cult. I imagine they're like a bunch of miserable,  misanthropic, get-off-my-lawn sonuvabitches. You could almost say they're the "surliest" tribe out there.

Edit: It's probably because they have to spend every day with their fucked up extended families and not just for the holidays.

Edited November 22, 2018 by bolverk

[SDG 3319]

I live 5 miles from a major airport and can only recall seeing airplanes a few times.  Given that they are 35 miles from a city the chances are they don't see modern tech very often.

[Herpa Derpa 6132]

18 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

There was probably some undocumented encounter with outsiders that devastated them and has been passed down as a horror story for generations there. 

Or documented:

Quote

Contact by Maurice Vidal Portman (1880)[edit]

In 1880, in an effort to establish contact with the Islanders, British naval officer Maurice Vidal Portman (1860–1935), who was serving as a colonial administrator to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the time, led a group of Europeans to North Sentinel Island. Upon the arrival of the armed group, Islanders fled into the treeline but, after several days ashore, Portman's men were ultimately able to capture six individuals, an elderly man and woman and four children. The man and woman died shortly after or before their arrival in Port Blair, likely from disease, and so Portman attempted to befriend the surviving children by giving them gifts before returning them to North Sentinel Island, in hopes that the children would help village elders realise the British were friendly. The attempt was unsuccessful, likely due to the aggressive manner of Portman's visit to the island and the fact that his efforts resulted in the deaths of two Sentinelese people.^[11][25]Additionally, due to differences in culture, the children might not have recognised the gifts as such.

 

[po elvis 2077]

8 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Or documented:

 

i wonder what they mean by elderly man and woman. i imagine that 35 or 40 would be elderly for that tribe.

[po elvis 2077]

13 hours ago, Continental Op said:

This guy is like those stupid youtube douchebros who vandalized the Bonneville Salt Flats and wound up dying falling off of some waterfall they weren't supposed to be on.  Don't do dumb shit and you're less likely to die. 

i don't think he cared much about dying. i think he almost wanted to.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

15 minutes ago, Herpa Derpa said:

Or documented:

 

Yeah. That one doesn't seem bad enough for permanent hostility. I am thinking something that wiped out half their population. 

Edit: Or who knows. Maybe those kids caught something from the Brits, brought it back to the island, and half of them died from it.

Edited November 22, 2018 by FondrenRoad

[FondrenRoad 4378]

Just now, po elvis said:

i don't think he cared much about dying. i think he almost wanted to.

Well he did get shot with arrows and got away. And then went back to get shot with more arrows. Definitely seems like a death wish. Like he wanted the discussion that is happening to happen.  

[po elvis 2077]

13 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

Well he did get shot with arrows and got away. And then went back to get shot with more arrows. Definitely seems like a death wish. Like he wanted the discussion that is happening to happen.  

i think he thought God would be so pleased that he was doing this for these people and if he died doing it he was ready for heaven.

i think we are going to have some copycats now go over there with all the pub the tribe is getting. maybe not from the religious aspect but just very curious.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

6 minutes ago, po elvis said:

i think he thought God would be so pleased that he was doing this for these people and if he died doing it he was ready for heaven.

i think we are going to have some copycats now go over there with all the pub the tribe is getting. maybe not from the religious aspect but just very curious.

I agree. I don't expect any more missionaries to do anything, but I do expect to see a bunch of adventure junkie douchebags trying to livestream encounters. Hopefully, the Indian Navy beefs up patrols. 

And I think everyone is curious to see how they live. That tree canopy is impenetrable. Not a single clearing. It adds to the mystique. 

Edited November 22, 2018 by FondrenRoad

[SDG 3319]

12 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

I agree. I don't expect any more missionaries to do anything, but I do expect to see a bunch of adventure junkie douchebags trying to livestream encounters. Hopefully, the Indian Navy beefs up patrols. 

And I think everyone is curious to see how they live. That tree canopy is impenetrable. Not a single clearing. It adds to the mystique. 

I hope we ridicule these people and some kind of law is past making it illegal to go to the island.  

[FondrenRoad 4378]

5 minutes ago, SDG said:

I hope we ridicule these people and some kind of law is past making it illegal to go to the island.  

It is already illegal to go to the island. It wont stop people who want to go there. 

Edited November 22, 2018 by FondrenRoad

[po elvis 2077]

the place would make for a good location for the next Survivor.

[SDG 3319]

7 minutes ago, FondrenRoad said:

It is already illegal to go to the island. It wont stop people who want to go there. 

Good, a navy ship or two can handle the rest...

[Hanrahan 1306]

Been there 60,000 years and haven’t figured out fire? Idiots.

[FondrenRoad 4378]

3 minutes ago, Hanrahan said:

Been there 60,000 years and haven’t figured out fire? Idiots.

They probably figured it out. They also figured out that they are being watched in any place where it would be safe to start a fire. 

Plus, they have the most technologically advanced civilization in the world living underneath the sea floor next to the vibranium mines. Why do they need fire on the surface?

[Loco 3754]

[Assman 1830]

Any of these kids on Hudl?

[Pancho 45011]

Perfect description 

 

[woohorn 1131]

but to intentionally deny someone the knowledge that could lead to a better life ... just because you think it is fascinating is kinda dickish.

That's kinda how Mr. Chau felt.

[Continental Op 3934]

i think he thought God would be so pleased that he was doing this for these people and if he died doing it he was ready for heaven.
i think we are going to have some copycats now go over there with all the pub the tribe is getting. maybe not from the religious aspect but just very curious.

Well eventually they're gonna run out if arrows.

[Lat22 4018]

You mean God didn’t protect him?

[Surly Bevo 25160]

On 11/21/2018 at 10:07 AM, deadshank said:

If you only spoke Hovitos!!

Read the OP, this immediately came to mind....good work

[and 73]

25 minutes ago, Lat22 said:

You mean God didn’t protect him?

He was marketing for the wrong one. Everyone knows Buddha is one true god. I'm sorry, God. 

[RoundRobin 828]

5 hours ago, Loco said:

 

Joe Banks: What's that? A teddy bear? 

Waponi Chief: It's my soul. 

Joe Banks: Oh, I hope you don't lose it. 

Waponi Chief: Me too.

[cabowabo 4514]

I’m so relieved to hear that the parents have forgiven the tribe for the murder. I can’t rest easy tonight.  

[Prepuce of Doom 21104]

This whole story slightly renews my faith in the world. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

23 hours ago, campcrunk said:

South North Sentinel is absolutely fascinating to me. I used to spend hours combing over it on Google Earth just to see if I could find something. As someone posted, they don't use fire. There's speculation that they wait for lightning to strike and then try to keep any embers that result burning as long as possible. 

When the 2004 tsunami hit, the island was completely submerged. Afterwards, the Indian government sent someone to check on the Sentinelese because, hey, they've GOT to be dead, right? When the helicopter was flying low over a portion of the jungle, the Sentinelese came running out of the jungle to shoot arrows at it. Nobody has any idea how the fuck they made it through that one, but it apparently didn't put much of a dent in their population.

Anyway... fuck this guy. One poorly placed sneeze and he could have wiped everyone on the island out. I'm actually worried that something like that might happen anyway, because they dragged his body off into the forest. Hopefully, he wasn't carrying anything.

Uncontacted people are definitely intriguing.  Sentinel island may be one of the only or only island uncontact tribe.    Very unique situation where they basically can murder someone and the govt just shrugs and says I told you so.

[Francisco 2.0 32430]

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/isolated-tribesmen-kill-oru-grad-on-remote-indian-island/article_19ef123d-8370-5596-8c69-fbf669b56d45.html

 

Quote

An American adventurer and graduate of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa who kayaked to a remote Indian island populated by a tribe known for shooting at outsiders with bows and arrows has been killed, police said Wednesday.

Officials said they were working with anthropologists to recover the body.

Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said seven fishermen have been arrested for helping the American reach North Sentinel Island. The Sentinelese people are resistant to outsiders and often attack anyone who comes near, and visits to the island are heavily restricted by the government.

Quote

Pathak identified the American as John Allen Chau and said he told a hotel he was 26 years old. Chau was apparently shot and killed by arrows, but the cause of death can’t be confirmed until his body is recovered, Pathak told The Associated Press.

“It was a case of misdirected adventure,” Pathak said.

Chau arrived in the area on Oct. 16 and stayed in a hotel while he prepared to travel to the island. It was not his first time in the region: he had visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 2015 and 2016, Pathak said. North Sentinel is in the Andaman Islands at the intersection of the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.

ORU President William Wilson issued a statement about Chau’s death on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Quote

“The story of ORU alumnus John Chau’s death at the hands of an isolated people group has gone around the world today,” Wilson said.

“Not surprising that John would reach out to the unreached in order to share God’s love but we are deeply saddened to hear of his death.”

Chau organized his visit to the island through a friend who hired seven fishermen for $325 to take him there on a boat, which also towed his kayak, Pathak said.

The American went ashore in his kayak on Nov. 15 and sent the boat with the fishermen out to sea to avoid detection, Pathak said. He interacted with some of the tribespeople, offering gifts such as a football and fish. But the tribespeople became angry and shot an arrow at him, hitting a book he was carrying, Pathak said.

Quote

After his kayak was damaged, Chau swam back to the fishermen’s boat, which was waiting at a prearranged location. He spent the night writing about his experiences on pages that he then gave the fishermen, Pathak said. He set out again to meet the tribespeople on Nov. 16.

What happened then isn’t known. But on the morning of the following day, the waiting fishermen watched from a distance as the tribesmen dragged Chau’s body. They left for Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where they broke the news to Chau’s friend, who in turn notified his family, Pathak said.

Police charged the seven fishermen with endangering the life of the American by taking him to a prohibited area.

 

Spoiler

Chau had lived in Oklahoma, where he attended Oral Roberts University, and in southwestern Washington state, where he attended Vancouver Christian High School. Phone messages left with some of his relatives were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Kathleen Hosie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Consulate in Chennai, the capital of India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, said she was aware of reports concerning an American in the islands but could not comment further due to privacy considerations.

Survival International, an organization that works for the rights of tribal people, said the killing of the American should prompt Indian authorities to properly protect the lands of the Sentinelese and other Andaman tribes.

“The British colonial occupation of the Andaman Islands decimated the tribes living there, wiping out thousands of tribespeople, and only a fraction of the original population now survives. So the Sentinelese fear of outsiders is very understandable,” Stephen Corry, the group’s director, said in a statement.

Shiv Viswanathan, a social scientist and a professor at Jindal Global Law School, said North Sentinel Island was a protected area and not open to tourists. “The exact population of the tribe is not known, but it is declining. The government has to protect them,” Viswanathan said.

Poachers are known to fish illegally in the waters around the island, catching turtles and diving for lobsters and sea cucumbers. Tribespeople killed two Indian fishermen in 2006 when their boat broke loose and drifted onto the shore.

One of Chau’s friends, Casey Prince, 39, of Cape Town, South Africa, said he met the adventurer about six years ago, when Chau was a manager on the soccer team at Oral Roberts University. Chau and others on the team traveled to South Africa to volunteer at a soccer development and social leadership program Prince founded, Ubuntu Football Academy.

Since then, Chau had been back to visit Prince and his family or tutor and coach boys in the program about four times. Most recently, he was there from mid-September to mid-October, Prince said.

Prince described him as easy to like, kind, joyful and driven by twin passions: a love of the outdoors and fervent Christianity.

“He was an explorer at heart,” Prince said. “He loved creation and being out in it, I think having probably found and connected with God that way, and deeply so.”

Prince declined to discuss what Chau had told him about his plans for traveling in India or the islands, saying instead he wanted to focus his comments on who Chau was. But he said Chau, who previously spoke of having been bitten by a rattlesnake, accepted the dangers that came with his adventures.

“If he was taking a risk, he was very aware of it,” Prince said.

 

[and 73]

He spent time in Oklahoma? Say no more...

[Pato del Muerto 52608]

Bummer of a birthmark, Hal. 

[Carl Spackler 3504]

I'd go give those tribesmen a medal for shooting that dumbass full of arrows if it didn't mean that my dumb ass would get shot full of arrows, too.

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2652]

First. The entire story and these people are so interesting. Hopefully they can stay on their own.

 

second. Fuck this okie adshole. Hope he rots in hell and none of the tribespeople die to this dumbass and his diseases. 

[hornian 5223]

11 hours ago, po elvis said:

the place would make for a good location for the next Survivor.

Or Naked and Afraid. 

[woohorn 1131]

wild stuff below
 

Is that coconut vid 4 realz? Man, they ARE like pets. Did I just see uncontacted peoples tites?

[52-80 19257]

Arrogant Herb for what he asked for

Keep your god to yourself, asshat

[NowThis 931]

11 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Uncontacted people are definitely intriguing.  Sentinel island may be one of the only or only island uncontact tribe.    Very unique situation where they basically can murder someone and the govt just shrugs and says I told you so.

they probably are not aware of their status as a territory of India and consider themselves an independent people, which they are. So it's self defense from invasion and I'm cool with that.

[Nivek 16987]

I'd go give those tribesmen a medal for shooting that dumbass full of arrows if it didn't mean that my dumb ass would get shot full of arrows, too.

2 times. They shot him up 2 times.

[Guest]

12 hours ago, and said:

He spent time in Oklahoma? Say no more...

probably made him think he could handle most anything...cept he didn't account for folks who can actually hit what they shoot at.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13523]

30 year old story about Catholic bishop and nun sacrificed in Ecuador for contacting a tribe that didn't want to be contacted by them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/08/30/amazon-indians-fight-white-invaders/bbb2d03b-c4e8-41e2-8acc-ead9dd356fff/?utm_term=.4d19d8c3cde2

Quote

The clerics were left pinned to the ground by 21 heavy wooden spears. Their bodies bore 109 other spear wounds. Many of the wounds had been stuffed with leaves to stanch the flow of blood -- and prolong the victims' suffering.

To emphasize the point, the Indians erected a pole with a bone tied to its top next to the mutilated bodies -- a warning that any white man who ventured into their territory would meet the same fate

Stories or movies like The Mission play on the idea that the "savages" ultimately want to be contacted and saved, and the commercially or politically minded soldiers are the evil invaders.   If the Church wanted to convert the locals, perhaps with a sword or gun was the safest method.   

[Pancho 45011]

Another backstory on this tribe

 

[Jkwellborn 6747]

He was trespassing.

[Zepol87 9191]

[Jkwellborn 6747]

I’m not reading all the replies. I’m just gonna assume someone mentioned that he didn’t speak Hovitas.