Speaker 1: When it comes to work, communication is key, even if
Speaker 1: you don't have a writing job. Sounding unconfident, indecisive, or
Speaker 1: passive aggressive can hold you back professionally and hurt your
Speaker 1: team's productivity. Grimly premiums advanced tone suggestions make sure you're
Speaker 1: always sending the right message, sound clear and confident in
Speaker 1: your writing, and automatically replace negative leaning language with solution
Speaker 1: focused alternatives. With Grimly's help, you can build stronger relationships
Speaker 1: at work, be constructive in the face of challenges, and
Speaker 1: help your team get things done. Grimly works where you
Speaker 1: do so your team's projects get done before the deadline,
Speaker 1: and with features like comprehensive spelling grammar and clarity focused
Speaker 1: sentence rewrites, Grammily helps keep your writing efficient and mistake free.
Speaker 1: The right tone can move any project forward. Get it
Speaker 1: just right with Grammarly. Go to grammy dot com slash
Speaker 1: podcast to sign up for free, then get twenty percent
Speaker 1: off when you upgrade to Premium. That's twenty percent off
Speaker 1: at gramley dot com slash Podcast. Welcome to Unexplained Extra
Speaker 1: with me Richard McClain smith, where for the weeks in
Speaker 1: between episodes, we look at the stories that for one
Speaker 1: reason or other didn't make it into the show. In
Speaker 1: last week's episode, Always Already we found ourselves journeying deep
Speaker 1: into the Amazonian rainforest with the Maya Runa tribe and
Speaker 1: acclaimed photojournalist Lauren McIntyre. McIntyre had traveled into the forest
Speaker 1: in the hope of making contact with the tribe, only
Speaker 1: to find himself hopelessly lost and unable to return to
Speaker 1: his camp. Only after an epic three weeks living side
Speaker 1: by side with the Maya Runa, during which he believed
Speaker 1: he might be communicating telepathically with their chief, did McIntyre
Speaker 1: finally succeed in finding a way out. Sum That McIntyre
Speaker 1: had taken it on himself to locate the tribe in
Speaker 1: the first place might smack of a certain kind of
Speaker 1: arrogance that speaks to a bygone age of colonial self importance. Certainly,
Speaker 1: McIntyre's ambition to be the first to photograph these people
Speaker 1: took precedent over the tribe's evident desire to avoid all
Speaker 1: contact with outsiders, Though MacIntyre had never intended to intrude
Speaker 1: in their lives quite to the degree in which he
Speaker 1: claimed to have done. The notion of wanting to make
Speaker 1: contact with such a self isolating community remains an immensely
Speaker 1: complicated one for the Maya Runa. As it transpired when
Speaker 1: they were first contacted in nineteen sixty nine, after living
Speaker 1: in relative isolation since nineteen ten, they were grateful for it.
Speaker 1: The word Maya Runa translates to people of the river.
Speaker 1: After getting embroiled in skirmishes with the Peruvian government, they
Speaker 1: had been forced to leave the riverside lands where they
Speaker 1: thrived and moved deeper into the jungle. Through a combination
Speaker 1: of napalm and machine guns, the Peruvian government, with the
Speaker 1: support of the US Army's Southern Command, had sought to
Speaker 1: annihilate the tribe. When they were finally located by Harriet
Speaker 1: Field and Hattie Neeland in August nineteen sixty nine, they
Speaker 1: were tired of running. After subsequent negotiations were set up
Speaker 1: with the Peruvian government, the tribe were able to return
Speaker 1: to their homeland. Although it was contact with outsiders that
Speaker 1: threatened their existence in the first place and still does,
Speaker 1: it is also arguable that this later contact is what
Speaker 1: has kept them alive. In the main. However, the clash
Speaker 1: of a more dominant in culture against one lesso rarely
Speaker 1: tends to end well. Often, even just the language used
Speaker 1: when discussing the idea of it can be quite revealing.
Speaker 1: In November twenty seventeen, self professed adventurer Benedict Allen faced
Speaker 1: criticism after he allegedly went missing in Papa, New Guinea
Speaker 1: while searching for the Yifo tribe. Much like the Mayoruna
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties, the Yifo also tried to maintain
Speaker 1: little contact with the outside world. Some media outlets, however,
Speaker 1: reveled in what they saw to be Allan's plucky, adventurous spirit,
Speaker 1: describing the Jaifo as a lost tribe who were little
Speaker 1: more than dangerous headhunters. Such communities are also often described
Speaker 1: as having been discovered, as if they were rare precious
Speaker 1: metals with no agency of their own. Such groups are
Speaker 1: also often referred to as being remote or worse, uncivilized,
Speaker 1: as if there being anywhere other than closed to an
Speaker 1: urban center classifies them as being external to civilization, and
Speaker 1: yet remoteness is only ever a case of perspective. As
Speaker 1: Lauren McIntyre came to understand for the Mayoruna, at least
Speaker 1: in the time he was making contact with them, the
Speaker 1: concept of remoteness would be completely incomprehensible if, like them,
Speaker 1: you consider yourself to always be a part of nature,
Speaker 1: as opposed to separate from it. To ever be remote
Speaker 1: in the purest sense is an impossibility, since nature is
Speaker 1: both everywhere and always. For self isolating communities and cultures,
Speaker 1: such as the Mayoruna, there is good reason to want
Speaker 1: to avoid contact with outsiders. Indeed, history is littered with
Speaker 1: the blood and lost ideas of those people whose cultures
Speaker 1: were deemed inferior and weaker than others, and the damage
Speaker 1: can occur in many ways, from the contracting of a
Speaker 1: disease that a community had not previously experienced, to becoming
Speaker 1: the victims of deliberate genocide campaigns, and there are more
Speaker 1: subtle ways too. The extinction of a different culture or
Speaker 1: community when it clashes with another is rare in the
Speaker 1: modern age. However, a culture considered less worthy by a
Speaker 1: more dominant one will at best run the risk of
Speaker 1: becoming significantly diluted over time, while at worst could be
Speaker 1: systematically erased. Though it is not strictly in the same sense,
Speaker 1: and I can't claim to have any idea what it's
Speaker 1: like to experience that level of erasure. I couldn't help
Speaker 1: but be struck by something related to this when trying
Speaker 1: to write the last episode. It occurred whenever I attempted
Speaker 1: to search something online related to the natural world. If
Speaker 1: I typed glade, for example, the first thing I'd see
Speaker 1: was not something about a majestic forest opening of dappled
Speaker 1: light and fresh dew drops, but a domestic cleaning product
Speaker 1: specifically designed to mimic the smell of the outdoors. When
Speaker 1: trying to find anything with the word Amazon in it,
Speaker 1: it wasn't information about the largest and most biodiverse tract
Speaker 1: of rainforest on the planet that I found first, but
Speaker 1: links related to the world's largest e commerce company. And
Speaker 1: when I searched the word jaguar, the Mayoruna's own ancient god,
Speaker 1: it wasn't information on the majestic felines of the wild
Speaker 1: that I came across, but information about a certain type
Speaker 1: of car. Finding this happening again and again, it was
Speaker 1: hard to resist the sensation that a different world was
Speaker 1: being mapped out around me and slowly but surely laid
Speaker 1: over the one I thought I knew. This experience brought
Speaker 1: to mind a wonderful book called The Lost words written
Speaker 1: by Robert MacFarlane and exquisitely illustrated by Jackie Morris, inspired
Speaker 1: in part by this very idea of vanishing worlds, or
Speaker 1: rather our seemingly blase acceptance of it when it occurs,
Speaker 1: even right in front of our eyes. At first we
Speaker 1: lose the word, then its meaning, and in some cases,
Speaker 1: finally the very thing itself can vanish too. It is
Speaker 1: hard to know exactly what to make of all this.
Speaker 1: Is it something natural or something to be resisted, Although
Speaker 1: it feels sad on one level that to think one
Speaker 1: day the word jaguar might only bring to mind the
Speaker 1: model of a car. Much more so to think that
Speaker 1: in forgetting its name, we forget to care about it,
Speaker 1: while on another level, the animal was never ours to
Speaker 1: name in the first place. To day, sadly, tribes like
Speaker 1: the Mayoruna are likely to only be able to survive
Speaker 1: in isolation for as long as the land they occupy
Speaker 1: is deemed of little value to others. This is one
Speaker 1: of the reasons given for the continued survival of a
Speaker 1: small community of people living on North Sentinel Island, which
Speaker 1: forms part of the Andaman Islands that lie between the
Speaker 1: Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Though it isn't
Speaker 1: known how the tribe refers to itself, outsiders have labeled
Speaker 1: the group the Sentinels in order to protect them from
Speaker 1: the corrupting influence of outsiders. Their island homeland, which falls
Speaker 1: under the jurisdiction of the Indian government, has been declared
Speaker 1: an island reserve. All travel is prohibited within a three
Speaker 1: mile radius, while the area is also patrolled twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day, and this patrol is not only for
Speaker 1: the tribe's protection. Like many self isolating tribes, the Sentinels
Speaker 1: are fiercely and unequivocally protective of their territory. In November
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, despite knowing this, twenty six year old missionary
Speaker 1: John Alan Chow traveled to the island intent on converting
Speaker 1: the people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There was
Speaker 1: only one way it was going to end. Are you
Speaker 1: always taking care of your family? Do you often take
Speaker 1: care of others and not yourself? Now it's time to
Speaker 1: take care of yourself. To make time for you you
Speaker 1: deserve it. TELEDOC gives you access to a licensed therapist
Speaker 1: to help you get back to feeling your best, to
Speaker 1: feeling like yourself again. With teledoc, you can speak to
Speaker 1: a licensed therapist by phone or video. Therapy appointments are
Speaker 1: available seven days a week from seven am to nine
Speaker 1: pm local time. If you feel overwhelmed sometimes maybe you
Speaker 1: feel stressed or anxious, depressed or lonely, or you might
Speaker 1: be struggling with a personal or family issue, teledoc can help.
Speaker 1: Teledoc is committed to facilitating great therapeutic matches, so they
Speaker 1: make it easy to change counselors if needed. For free.
Speaker 1: Teledoc therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download
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Speaker 1: podcast today to get started. That's t e LA d
Speaker 1: C dot com slash Unexplained podcast. Very little is known
Speaker 1: about the Sentinels, with some estimates suggesting their specific ancestry
Speaker 1: could date back anywhere between thirty to sixty thousand years.
Speaker 1: Current population estimates have been anything from forty to four hundred.
Speaker 1: In twelve to ninety six, explorer Marco Polo saw fit
Speaker 1: to describe the general population of the Andaman Islands as
Speaker 1: a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and
Speaker 1: teeth like those of dogs. They are very cruel and
Speaker 1: kill and eat every foreigner whom they can lay their
Speaker 1: hands upon, he wrote. However, in what is often par
Speaker 1: for the course when describing others, it is thought that
Speaker 1: Polo never saw or interacted with these people himself, and
Speaker 1: merely based the estment on rumor alone. For many years,
Speaker 1: the Andaman Islands were largely ignored by others until the
Speaker 1: eighteen fifties, when they fell under the colonial rule of
Speaker 1: the British Empire and were used in part as a
Speaker 1: penal colony. When the first British Superintendent was dispatched to
Speaker 1: the Andamans in eighteen fifty eight, he instructed that the
Speaker 1: indigenous population be treated with the greatest forbearance and humanity
Speaker 1: by the British, insisting that their intentions towards the people
Speaker 1: of the islands were of the most friendly character. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: this message didn't get across since, unsurprisingly, when the British
Speaker 1: attempted to take ownership of the islands, they met with
Speaker 1: some fierce resistance. However, this was soon quelled when after
Speaker 1: one skirmish in which fifteen hundred Islanders attempted to scare
Speaker 1: off their foe, they were massacre by the guns of
Speaker 1: a British warship. Prior to the arrival of the British,
Speaker 1: the Andaman Islands indigenous population was thought to be around
Speaker 1: five thousand. By the time they relinquished control ninety years later,
Speaker 1: it was estimated to have dropped to round four hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty. As Adam Goodheart wrote in the American Scholar
Speaker 1: magazine in two thousand, the history of the period can
Speaker 1: be summarized as a series of epidemics. As the local
Speaker 1: population were one by one introduced to pneumonia, syphilis, ophthalmia, measles, mumps,
Speaker 1: Russian influenza, and gonorrhea. We can only speculate as to
Speaker 1: how sexually transmitted diseases made their way into the population.
Speaker 1: As for the Sentinels specifically, though there had been rumors
Speaker 1: of a tribe of people living on North Sentinel Island,
Speaker 1: due to its relevant size and inconvenient location, it had
Speaker 1: been deemed unimportant. Then in eighteen seventy nine, one young colonialist,
Speaker 1: recently appointed to the position of Officer in charge of
Speaker 1: the Andamanese decided to take a closer look. Nineteen year
Speaker 1: old Maurice Vidal Portman, the grandson of a viscount, set
Speaker 1: off for the island shortly after his appointment with a
Speaker 1: team of armed escorts and trackers from other Andaman tribes.
Speaker 1: When they arrived, however, they found the place completely deserted,
Speaker 1: save for a few tracks and a series of small
Speaker 1: villages that appeared to have been recently abandoned. Having given
Speaker 1: up on their search, they chanced upon an elderly couple
Speaker 1: and four children walking back to their village. Portman had
Speaker 1: them abducted on the spot and taken back to his
Speaker 1: home in Port Blair, the Andaman Islands capital town, to
Speaker 1: observe their behavior. Almost immediately, the islanders grew sick, and
Speaker 1: within weeks the elderly couple died, and so it was
Speaker 1: that Portman's amateur anthropological ambitions came to a swift end.
Speaker 1: Children were returned to the island soon after. After this
Speaker 1: brief encounter, the Sentinel Leaves had virtually no contact with
Speaker 1: outsiders until nineteen ninety one, when Indian government anthropologists finally
Speaker 1: succeeded in completing a non fatal engagement with them. After
Speaker 1: years of trying to establish a relationship. Their attempts were
Speaker 1: effectively abandoned in two thousand and three, when it was
Speaker 1: decided instead to enact a policy of no contact with
Speaker 1: the group. In two thousand and six, two Indian fishermen
Speaker 1: drifted too close to North Sentinel, Ireland and were promptly
Speaker 1: captured and killed by the Sentinel Leagues. Twelve years later,
Speaker 1: missionary John Alan Chow arrived to make his own attempt
Speaker 1: at contact. Chow, a missionary for the Missouri based organization
Speaker 1: All Nations in the United States, did not make his
Speaker 1: trip lightly. In fact, he had been training for it
Speaker 1: for three years, attending a missionary boot camp which included
Speaker 1: undertaking role play exercises of how to deal with hostile
Speaker 1: potential converts. Chow was enthralled to the Great Commission Jesus's
Speaker 1: supposed injunction that Christians must spread the Gospel to all people.
Speaker 1: Being such a committed follower of this doctrine, Chow became
Speaker 1: fascinated by the idea of helping to convert the to
Speaker 1: the Lees, whom he described as possibly representing Satan's last
Speaker 1: stronghold on earth. Having made his way to the Andamans
Speaker 1: on November fourteenth, two and eighteen, he took the next
Speaker 1: step and succeeded in paying some local fishermen to sneak
Speaker 1: him past the patrol boats and drop anchor close enough
Speaker 1: for him to kayak to the island. The next morning,
Speaker 1: he assembled his initial contact response kit, which included picture
Speaker 1: cards for communicating and dental forceps in case he might
Speaker 1: have to remove any arrows, the sentinels weapon of choice,
Speaker 1: as well as some gifts which he hoped to share
Speaker 1: with the islanders. Then, after stripping to his underwear to
Speaker 1: appear less threatening, he got into his kayak and paddled
Speaker 1: toward the shore. As he drew closer, he was able
Speaker 1: to make out a small hut and some wooden canoes
Speaker 1: pulled up on to the beach. Suddenly, a series of
Speaker 1: high pitched voices rang out, followed by the appearance of
Speaker 1: a handful of islanders with faces painted yellow, rushing down
Speaker 1: to the water line. My name is John, shouted the
Speaker 1: missionary from his kayak. I love you and Jesus loves you.
Speaker 1: It was only then that John noticed the bow and
Speaker 1: arrows in their hands, watching aghast as one of the
Speaker 1: group raised one up and took aim. John hurriedly flung
Speaker 1: them some fish as a gift, and then paddled away
Speaker 1: as fast as he could. Later that day, he made
Speaker 1: a second attempt, and this time succeeded in landing on
Speaker 1: the island before being spotted. Cautiously, he approached the hut
Speaker 1: on foot, this time being careful not to get within
Speaker 1: shooting range. Calling out to them again. The islanders suddenly emerged,
Speaker 1: whooping and shouting for him to back off. Ignoring them,
Speaker 1: John drew closer as he attempted to parrot their words
Speaker 1: back to them. When they laughed scornfully in response, John
Speaker 1: assumed the words were insults and they were laughing at
Speaker 1: his ignorance. Undeterred, John reverted to singing songs of worship,
Speaker 1: and after a while the islanders appeared to grow used
Speaker 1: to his presence. In response, John's voice grew in confidence.
Speaker 1: He held up his Bible and began to preach the gospel.
Speaker 1: Just then he felt something hit hard against the good book,
Speaker 1: turning it round. He looked on in horror at the
Speaker 1: sight of an arrow now sticking out of it. Holding
Speaker 1: his nerves as best he could, John slowly pulled it
Speaker 1: out and then offered it back to the boy who
Speaker 1: had fired it, and made his retreat. When he turned back, however,
Speaker 1: his kayak had gone. With no other option, John dived
Speaker 1: straight into the ocean and swam back to the fishing boat.
Speaker 1: That night, John wrote in his diary about how scared
Speaker 1: he was, fearful that the beautiful sunset that was occurring
Speaker 1: before him, as he wrote, might be the last he
Speaker 1: ever saw. In his final entry, he asked God to
Speaker 1: forgive any of the people on the island who might
Speaker 1: try to kill him, especially if they succeeded. Shortly after
Speaker 1: first light the following day, he took another kayak back
Speaker 1: to the island. Later that morning, as the fisherman waited
Speaker 1: for John to return, they saw movement on the beach.
Speaker 1: It appeared the tribes people were burying something in the sand.
Speaker 1: John allan Chow was never seen alive again. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy listening to Unexplained and would like to help support us,
Speaker 1: you can now go to Unexplained podcast dot com forward
Speaker 1: slash support. All donations, no matter how large or small,
Speaker 1: are massively appreciated. All elements of Unexplained are produced by me,
Speaker 1: Richard mc lane Smith. Please subscribe and rate the show
Speaker 1: on iTunes, and feel free to get in touch with
Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation of your own
Speaker 1: you'd like to share. You can reach us online at
Speaker 1: Unexplained podcast dot com, or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and
Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward slash Unexplained Now. It's
Speaker 1: time to take care of yourself. To make time for you.
Speaker 1: Teledoc gives you access to a licensed therapist to help
Speaker 1: you get back to feeling your best. Speak to a
Speaker 1: licensed therapist by phone or video anytime between seven am
Speaker 1: to nine pm local time, seven days a week. Teledoc
Speaker 1: Therapy is available through most insurance or employers. Download the
Speaker 1: app or visit teledoc dot com, Forward slash Unexplained Podcast
Speaker 1: Today to get started. That's t e ladoc dot com
Speaker 1: Slash Unexplained Podcast. When it comes to work, communication is key,
Speaker 1: even if you don't have a writing job. Sounding unconfident, indecisive,
Speaker 1: or passive aggressive can hold you back professionally and hurt
Speaker 1: your team's productivity. Grammily premiums advanced tone suggestions make sure
Speaker 1: you're always sending the right message, sound clear and confident
Speaker 1: in your writing, and automatically replace negative leaning language with
Speaker 1: solution focused alternatives. With Grimley's help, you can build stronger
Speaker 1: relationships at work, be constructive in the face of challenges
Speaker 1: and help your team get things done. Grimly works where
Speaker 1: you do so your team's projects get done before the
Speaker 1: deadline and with features like comprehensive spelling, grammar and clarity
Speaker 1: focused sentence rewrites. Grammily helps keep your writing efficient and
Speaker 1: mistake free. The right tone can move any project forward.
Speaker 1: Get it just right with Grammarly. Go to grammy dot
Speaker 1: com slash podcast to sign up for free, then get
Speaker 1: twenty percent off when you upgrade to Premium. That's twenty
Speaker 1: percent off at gramley dot com slash Podcast. When it
Speaker 1: comes to work, communication is key, even if you don't
Speaker 1: have a writing job. Sounding unconfident, indecisive, or passive aggressive
Speaker 1: can hold you back professionally and hurt your team's productivity.
Speaker 1: Grammily premiums advanced tone suggestions make sure you're always sending
Speaker 1: the right message, sound clear and confident in your writing,
Speaker 1: and automatically replace negative leaning language with solution focused alternatives.
Speaker 1: With Grimley's help, you can build stronger relationships at work,
Speaker 1: be constructive in the face of challenges, and help your
Speaker 1: team get things done. Grimly works where you do so
Speaker 1: your team's projects get done before the deadline and with
Speaker 1: features like comprehensive spelling grammar and clarity focused sentence rewrites.
Speaker 1: Grammily helps keep your writing efficient and mistake free. The
Speaker 1: right tone can move any project forward. Get it just
Speaker 1: right with Grammarly. Go to grammy dot com slash podcast
Speaker 1: to sign up for free, then get twenty percent off
Speaker 1: when you upgrade to premium. That's twenty percent off at
Speaker 1: gramley dot com slash Podcast