Sentinelese

The Sentinelese, also known as the North Sentinel Islanders, are Indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese peoples.

Along with the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge, the Shompen, and the Nicobarese, the Sentinelese make up one of the six indigenous (and often reclusive) peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The tribe has had minimal contact with outsiders and has usually been hostile to those who approach or land on the island. While friendly contact was reported in the early 1990s, such instances are rare.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation of 1956 declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and prohibited travel within 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) of it. It further maintains a constant armed patrol in the surrounding waters to prevent intrusions by outsiders. Photography is prohibited, though some have gotten close enough to take pictures. There is significant uncertainty as to the group's size, with estimates ranging between 35 and 500 individuals, but mostly between 50 and 200.

Overview

Geography

The Sentinelese live on North Sentinel Island, in the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. The island lies about 64 km (35 nmi) west of Andaman capital Port Blair. It has an area of about 59.67 km² (14,740 acres) and a roughly square outline. The seashore is about 45 m (50 yd) wide encompassing a littoral forest that gives way to a dense tropical evergreen forest. The island is surrounded by coral reefs and has a tropical climate.

Appearance

A 1977 report by Heinrich Harrer described a man as 1.60 metres (5 ft 3 in) tall, possibly because of insular dwarfism (the so-called "Island Effect"), nutrition, or simply genetic heritage. During a 2014 circumnavigation of their island, researchers put their height between 1.60 and 1.65 m (5 ft 3 in and 5 ft 5 in) and recorded their skin colour as "dark, shining black" with well-aligned teeth. They showed no signs of obesity and had very prominent muscles.

Population

No rigorous census has been conducted and the population has been variously estimated to be as low as 15 or as high as 500. Most estimates lie between 50 and 200.

The 1971 census estimated the population at around 82, and the 1981 census at 100. A 1986 expedition recorded the highest count, 98. In 2001, the census of India officially recorded 21 men and 18 women. This survey was conducted from a distance and may not have been accurate. 2004 post-tsunami expeditions recorded counts of 32 and 13 individuals in 2004 and 2005, respectively. The 2011 census of India recorded 12 men and three women. During a 2014 circumnavigation, researchers recorded six women, seven men (all apparently under 40 years old) and three children younger than four. A handbook released in 2016 by the Anthropological Survey of India on "Vulnerable Tribe Groups" estimates the population at between 100 and 150.

Practices

The Sentinelese are hunter-gatherers. They use spears with bows and arrows to hunt terrestrial wildlife and more rudimentary methods to catch local seafood, such as mud crabs and molluscan shells. They are believed to eat many molluscs, given the abundance of roasted shells found in their settlements. They are not known to engage in agriculture.

Both sexes wear bark strings; the men tuck daggers into their waist belts. They also wear some ornaments such as necklaces and headbands, but are essentially nude. Usual habitations include small temporary huts erected on four poles with slanted leaf-covered roofs.

There is no evidence of the Sentinelese having knowledge of metallurgy outside of cold forging to make tools and weapons, though the Andamanese scholar Vishvajit Pandya notes that Onge narratives often recall voyages by their ancestors to North Sentinel to procure metal. Residents of the island accepted aluminium cookware left by the National Geographic Society in 1974.

Canoes are used for lagoon-fishing, but long poles rather than paddles or oars propel them. They seldom use the canoes for cross-island navigation. Artistic engravings of simple geometric designs and shade contrasts have been seen on their weapons.

The women have been seen to dance by slapping both palms on the thighs while simultaneously tapping the feet rhythmically in a bent-knee stance.

Similarities and dissimilarities to the Onge people have been noted. They prepare their food similarly. They share common traits in body decoration and material culture. There are also similarities in the design of their canoes; of all the Andamanese tribes, only the Sentinelese and Onge make canoes. Similarities with the Jarawas have been also noted: their bows have similar patterns. No such marks are found on Onge bows, and both tribes sleep on the ground, while the Onge sleep on raised platforms. The metal arrowheads and adze blades are quite large and heavier than those of other Andamanese tribes.

Language

Because of their complete isolation, very little is known about the Sentinelese language, which is therefore unclassified. It has been recorded that the Jarawa language is mutually unintelligible with the Sentinelese language. The range of overlap with the Onge language is unknown; the Anthropological Survey of India's 2016 handbook on Vulnerable Tribe Groups considers them mutually unintelligible.

Isolation and uncontacted status

In 1957, the Indian government declared North Sentinel Island a tribal reserve and prohibited travel within 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometres). Photography was prohibited. A constant armed patrol prevents intrusions by outsiders.

The Sentinelese are a community of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. Designated a particularly vulnerable tribal group and a Scheduled Tribe, they belong to the broader class of Andamanese people.

Along with the Great Andamanese, the Jarawas, the Onge, the Shompen, and the Nicobarese, the Sentinelese are one of the six often reclusive peoples indigenous to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Unlike the others, the Sentinelese appear to have consistently refused any interaction with the outside world. They are hostile to outsiders and have killed people who approached or landed on the island.

History of contacts

The first peaceful contact with the Sentinelese was made by Triloknath Pandit, a director of the Anthropological Survey of India, and his colleagues, on 4 January 1991. Later, contact was made by Madhumala Chattopadhyay. Indian visits to the island ceased in 1997. An American, John Allen Chau, was killed in 2018 while visiting the island illegally as a Christian missionary.

Colonial period

In 1771, an East India Company hydrographic survey vessel, the Diligent, observed "a multitude of lights [...] upon the shore" of North Sentinel Island, which is the island's first recorded mention. The crew did not investigate.

During a late summer monsoon in October 1867, the Indian merchant-vessel Nineveh foundered on the reef off North Sentinel. All the passengers and crew reached the beach safely, but as they proceeded for their breakfast on the third day, they were suddenly assaulted by a group of naked, short-haired, red-painted islanders with arrows. The captain, who fled in the ship's boat, was found days later by a brig and the Royal Navy sent a rescue party to the island. Upon arrival, the party discovered that the survivors had managed to repel the attackers with sticks and stones and that they had not reappeared.

The first recorded visit to the island by a colonial officer was by Jeremiah Homfray in 1867. He recorded seeing naked islanders catching fish with bows and arrows, and was informed by the Great Andamanese that they were Jarawas.

In 1880, in an effort to establish contact with the Sentinelese, the Royal Navy officer Maurice Vidal Portman, who was serving as a colonial administrator to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, led an armed group of Europeans along with convict-orderlies and Andamanese trackers (whom they had already befriended) to North Sentinel Island. On their arrival, the islanders fled into the treeline. After several days of futile search, during which they found abandoned villages and paths, Portman's men captured six people: an elderly man, a woman and four children. The man and woman died of illness shortly after their arrival in Port Blair and the children began to fall ill as well. Portman hurriedly sent the children back to North Sentinel Island with a large quantity of gifts in an attempt to establish friendly relations. Portman visited the island again in 1883, 1885 and 1887.

In 1896, a convict escaped from the penal colony on Great Andaman Island on a makeshift raft and drifted across to the North Sentinel beach. His body was discovered by a search party some days later with several arrow-piercings and a cut throat. The party recorded that they did not see any islanders.