American killed by uncontacted tribe on North Sentinel Island.

A Sentinel Island man shoots arrows at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter. Reuters/Indian Coast Guard. 

An American has been killed by an uncontacted tribe of natives on North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean. Reuters. John Allen Chau, a 26 year old, was killed by the tribe after he arrived their to proselytize the Christian faith. North Sentinel Island is populated by the Sentinelese people, a tribe that has had no official contact with the outside world. They have attacked and killed several people who have trespassed on their land, including a couple of fishermen in 2006. Chau had visited the island on the 15th and gave the natives there gifts of scissors, safety pins and footballs, but the Sentinelese were aggressive with him. When he returned on the 16th he told the fishermen who had brought him there that he wouldn't be returning and that they should return home. Chau was killed on the 16th and his body has not yet been recovered and given how aggressive the Sentinelese people are it may not ever be. Travel to North Sentinel Island is forbidden. 

My Comment:

I've always been fascinated by the North Sentinel Island people. We know very little about them as they have always been very resistant to outside contact. I even read a fictional book set on the island which was good until it went off the rails at the end. The idea that there are people in the middle of the Indian Ocean that have no idea about the outside world is fascinating to me. 

Of course John Chau should have known better than to go to this island. Attempting to proselytize to these people was always going to end in failure. They have almost no tolerance to outsiders and it was a minor miracle that he wasn't killed on his first trip to the island. Had he simply left after that first trip he'd still be alive with quite a story to tell, though he would have likely been charged for violating the travel ban.

Just try to imagine things from the Sentinelese perspective. A man that they had never seen before who doesn't look anything like them who they might not even recognize as being a fellow human shows up. He brings a few trinkets with him that are useful but then he starts babbling in a language you don't understand. You try and tell him to go away and he does but the next day he shows up again and it's clear that he isn't going to leave. It's no surprised that they killed him. 

I don't think we should condemn the Sentinelese people for this. After all this is less of a murder and more a case of castle doctrine. If someone showed up on my private island and refused to leave he might get killed too, even if his intentions aren't bad. Without understanding the language there was no crime committed when they shot him with their arrows. And even if they could have understood him, which was likely impossible, it wouldn't have been morally wrong to kill someone that was trespassing and trying to live on the island without permission.

However a crime was committed by both Chau and the fisherman who brought him to North Sentinel Island. It is good that they are being charged for violating the travel ban. Chau may have been massively naive but the local fishermen did know what was going to happen to him after they left him there. They knew they were sending him to his death but they did so anyways. 

Even worse the media attention this story is gaining may encourage more foolish people to come to North Sentinel Island for their own reasons. Some might be more Christian missionaries but they could also be random adventures or troublemakers. Those people would also likely face violence and I fear that they may end up harassing these people and it will end with more blood...