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Speaker 1: Fellow conspiracy realist. It is no secret that the three

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Speaker 1: of us are consumed, at times obsessed with all the

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Speaker 1: places in the world that you cannot go. There are,

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Speaker 1: clearly there are some that we believe should be open

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Speaker 1: to the public just in the interest of transparency. But

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Speaker 1: all the world, there is one place that I think

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Speaker 1: we've all agreed we will not go to because the

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Speaker 1: people don't want you there. No, they sure don't North

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Speaker 1: Sentinel Island.

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Speaker 2: No matter how exciting this place seems, both from the

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Speaker 2: aerial photographs you've seen or the stories you've heard about it,

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Speaker 2: you can't go. You shouldn't go. Some people have and

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Speaker 2: it didn't go so well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a mental image of missionaries being shot

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Speaker 1: by arrows. Maybe that's this one, right, that is the

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Speaker 1: very same. North Sentinel Island is home to an ancient

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Speaker 1: isolated population, and they have that. There's a reason why

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Speaker 1: they have become so isolationists, which we explore in this episode.

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna throw it out there, because you know,

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Speaker 1: there's no harm in trying. If you are from North

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Speaker 1: Sentinel Island and you are hearing this podcast, we would

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Speaker 1: love to hear from you. Let's jump right in.

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Speaker 3: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 3: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 3: learn this stuff they don't want you to know.

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Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt.

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Speaker 2: Noel is off on an adventure that we can't disclose yet,

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Speaker 2: but soon.

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Speaker 1: They call me Ben. We are joined with our super

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Speaker 1: producer Paul Decat Paul Wilson Decade. Maybe is that appropriate

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Speaker 1: for this episode? Matter like it that?

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Speaker 2: You mean you're talking about the soccer ball?

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Speaker 1: Yes? Okay, Most importantly, you are you and you are here,

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Speaker 1: and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. Today,

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Speaker 1: we are diving into something that Matt, you and I

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Speaker 1: explored during our video series.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and it's I think our fifth most popular video

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Speaker 2: that we ever made. Really, Yes, almost a million dollar

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Speaker 2: views at this point.

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Speaker 1: All he smokes, Still not gonna beat that. Uh what

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Speaker 1: about Satan?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Satan will always be at the top.

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Speaker 1: And I'm kind of I feel very fortunate for both

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Speaker 1: of us that not that many people watched the instructions

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Speaker 1: on How to Get Away with Murder?

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Speaker 2: Yes, of less than fifty thousand. I want to say great,

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Speaker 2: but that's still a lot of people.

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Speaker 1: People. We do we we do tell people not to

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Speaker 1: commit murder, right, we do. At some point in that one.

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Speaker 2: We can take it down. Do you want me to

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Speaker 2: take it down?

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Speaker 1: I know, you know. I feel like we did a

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Speaker 1: good job, is the thing? Okay, a moral notions aside.

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Speaker 1: It does feel like we did a good job. But yes,

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Speaker 1: we did a video on North Sentinel Island several years ago,

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Speaker 1: more years than I think. Well, you probably know, Matt,

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Speaker 1: when did we do that one?

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Speaker 2: I believe it was twenty thirteen, but it has been

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Speaker 2: a minute since I looked at it.

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Speaker 1: It's been a while. So North Sentinel Island has a

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Speaker 1: mystery to it, and if you have seen our earlier video,

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Speaker 1: you might have an inkling about what we're going to

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Speaker 1: dive into today. But to get to this mystery, we

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Speaker 1: have to first explore human beings.

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Speaker 2: Oh that sounds good.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great. Human beings are a species that loves

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Speaker 1: to talk about itself. Yeah, and that's us, and that's us,

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Speaker 1: that's you, that's you too, and yes, specifically you. So

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Speaker 1: human beings, our species exist to some degree on every continent,

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Speaker 1: which is insane when you think about it. Our tremendous

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Speaker 1: ability to adapt to inhospitable environments has spread us across

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Speaker 1: the planet and the modern age, technological breakthroughs allow us

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Speaker 1: to communicate instantaneously regardless of our physical location. I mean,

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Speaker 1: just think of all the podcasts that have Like you

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Speaker 1: and I prefer to hang out in person in the room,

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Speaker 1: but there are many very successful, very fascinating podcasts with

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Speaker 1: hosts that rarely see each other in person.

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Speaker 2: Much like stuff you missed in history class.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's actually I'm surprised I didn't think about that. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: One of our hosts is based in Atlanta on that show,

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Speaker 1: and the other in Boston, and they can commune pretty

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Speaker 1: much instantaneous.

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Speaker 2: Sounds like they're having a conversation in the room. And

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Speaker 2: one more thing I just want to add here. We're

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Speaker 2: talking about the humans us living on all these continents,

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Speaker 2: we also live on islands that aren't considered a continent

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Speaker 2: all over the planet.

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Speaker 1: That's true, that's true, and even in those spaces people

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Speaker 1: can communicate thanks to technology. Modernity, it seems, is contagious.

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Speaker 1: But here's the fascinating and somewhat disturbing thing. As we've

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Speaker 1: spread farther and farther, some groups of humans also became isolated.

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Speaker 1: Those geographical boundaries bedeviled us, impassable mountains, shifting ice, dense

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Speaker 1: dangerous jungles, rising seas, and treacherous currents to your point

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Speaker 1: about islands, right, all played a role in keeping some

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Speaker 1: groups of human beings hidden from the progress and the

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Speaker 1: curses of global society. And you know, we've all, like

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Speaker 1: you've heard these stories, right, we even without thinking of

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Speaker 1: a specific one. We've all heard the stories wherein some

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Speaker 1: intrepid explorer encounters a tribe of people who had no

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Speaker 1: knowledge of the outside world. Right, mm hmm. I I

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Speaker 1: remember thinking that these were relatively I don't know, fictionalized

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Speaker 1: things growing up. Yeah, Like I don't want to say

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Speaker 1: fairy tales, but fictional adventure stories.

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Speaker 2: Yes, they're They're depicted in film and in books all

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Speaker 2: over the place, various fictional ones and non fictional encounters

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Speaker 2: of this sort. And the I think that line gets

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Speaker 2: blurred a little bit in our popular culture of what

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Speaker 2: what a real encounter looks like in what a a

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Speaker 2: played up one looks like for the screen.

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Speaker 1: Right, That's a very important point in the modern age.

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Speaker 1: It seems like these events and encounters, whether they were truthful,

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Speaker 1: whether they were fiction or whether they were a blood

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Speaker 1: of the two, usually to make someone from the West

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Speaker 1: feel more important about themselves.

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Speaker 2: Or less like they were colonizers.

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Speaker 1: Or less like they were colonizers. That's true regardless. Nowadays,

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Speaker 1: it seems like most of these events or encounters are

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Speaker 1: going to be relegated to history books. In short, everyone

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Speaker 1: has met everyone or is aware of everyone, right, we

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Speaker 1: all get it.

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Speaker 2: Everyone is at least aware enough that there's an outside world.

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Speaker 2: Like a tribe, most tribes of isolated people are aware

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Speaker 2: that there's an outside world with some technology in it.

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Speaker 1: Right. And it is sadly true that there are many

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Speaker 1: countries that people in other countries aren't very much aware of,

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Speaker 1: you know, yes, like you've seen, especially European media gives

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Speaker 1: people in the US a real devil of a time

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Speaker 1: with this. And you can see new YouTube compilations of

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Speaker 1: Americans being asked to point to a country on the

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Speaker 1: map on the world map and getting it cartoonishly wrong.

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Speaker 1: That's a little bit of a stereotype. Well, I promise

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Speaker 1: people are I promise the editors are cherry picking that

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Speaker 1: for all our non American listeners.

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Speaker 2: We certainly hope, so we certainly hope so.

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Speaker 1: And regardless of how hilarious those videos might be, Matt,

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Speaker 1: your point, I would say, is absolutely correct. We are

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Speaker 1: aware of the other We are aware that it exists.

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Speaker 1: There will be a you know, the majority of people

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Speaker 1: who live in China will probably never travel to the States,

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Speaker 1: and the majority of people who live in the States

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Speaker 1: will probably never travel to China. But both are aware

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Speaker 1: that the other country exists and is a real thing.

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Speaker 2: Thank you television and Internet.

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Speaker 1: Thank you television and books. Yes, in a world though,

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Speaker 1: where everything is rapidly urbanizing, right, I think it was

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Speaker 1: what while you and I were first working together, the

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Speaker 1: shift occurred and the majority of human beings began to

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Speaker 1: live in cities.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we've been working together for a long time, and

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Speaker 2: it sounds like around twenty fourteen that's when we we

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Speaker 2: went past the fifty percent mark. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: By twenty fourteen, fifty four percent of the world's population

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Speaker 1: lived in an urban area.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: And that shift is pretty crazy, right, pretty recent too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's definitely a condensing of humanity into these

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Speaker 2: places that, for better or for worse, do really well

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Speaker 2: for various economies and for populations, but not so great

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Speaker 2: in a lot of other ways, you know, pollution, crime,

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Speaker 2: a lot of those things, right.

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Speaker 1: Right exactly. And this in this world where there are

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Speaker 1: increasingly fewer isolated populations and a larger number of densely

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Speaker 1: let's say, densely combined populations, we can understand why people

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Speaker 1: would think there there are no more uncontacted tribes. There are.

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Speaker 1: Many people say that's a myth because so many anthropologists

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Speaker 1: of the past and days of yore wanted to be

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Speaker 1: the first outsider to encounter some group. That probably that

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Speaker 1: has happened, right yeah, But a hard definition of an

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Speaker 1: uncontacted tribe, as in someone who is some group that

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Speaker 1: has never seen nor, as they say in Tennessee, heard

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Speaker 1: tell of any other group. The odds of that still

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Speaker 1: existing are preposterously low, right yeah.

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Speaker 2: And I think a lot of that has to do

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Speaker 2: with something as simple as Google Maps, where you can

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Speaker 2: you can open it up and you can see every island.

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Speaker 2: Because we have the satellite imagery, we know that that

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Speaker 2: island exists there, but wherever it is as isolated as

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Speaker 2: it is, that island exists here in this program. So

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Speaker 2: obviously somebody's been there, right, that's the assumption, at least

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Speaker 2: or you could go there, So why wouldn't have someone

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Speaker 2: gone there already? Right?

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Speaker 1: And then there's that related point. Maybe there are any

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Speaker 1: uncontacted tribes, but maybe the human experiment has grown so

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Speaker 1: large that there aren't even any really isolated tribes anymore. Yeah, right,

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Speaker 1: that's the assumption. That's a safe assumption. But the problem

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Speaker 1: is that could not be further from the truth. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode concerns a particular community that you may not have

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Speaker 1: heard of on a tiny island off the coast of India,

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Speaker 1: one that is lost to time again.

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Speaker 2: It's called North Sentinel Island. It's relatively tiny. It's just

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Speaker 2: seventy two square kilometers that's twenty eight square miles. And

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Speaker 2: it's well that's before the two thousand and four earthquake

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Speaker 2: because the land mass changed slightly.

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Speaker 1: There expanded, and.

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Speaker 2: It's a part of the Andaman Archipelago. This is a

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Speaker 2: grouping of the Endemen and Nicobar Islands. It's located at

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Speaker 2: the crux of the Bay of Bengal and the Andemen Sea. Now,

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Speaker 2: just we're gonna give you some degrees here so you

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Speaker 2: can find it on your globe if you've got one handy.

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Speaker 2: They're between six degrees and fourteen degrees north latitude and

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Speaker 2: ninety two degrees and ninety four degrees east longitude. Now

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Speaker 2: that's fourteen hundred kilometers from mainland India on one side.

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Speaker 1: That's like one hundred and seventy miles.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then one thousand kilometers from Thailand.

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Speaker 1: And that is about six hundred and twenty one miles.

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Speaker 2: So it's kind of in the center of those. Basically,

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Speaker 2: if you zoom out far enough on Google Maps and

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Speaker 2: you draw a line between the center of in this case,

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Speaker 2: I'm using Sri Lanka because it's like the island at

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Speaker 2: the bottom of India there and to the center of Thailand,

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Speaker 2: this will be located pretty close to the center of

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Speaker 2: that line. Just if you're looking at Google Maps or something,

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Speaker 2: and it's these two sets of islands, the Andomen and

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Speaker 2: the Nicobar Islands. It's some of the most remote spots

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Speaker 2: on the entire planet.

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Speaker 1: Yes, some of the islands around this area are referred

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Speaker 1: to in one of my absolute favorite books in the world,

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Speaker 1: The Atlas of Remote Islands. I highly recommend you check

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Speaker 1: it out if you are interested in exploration and remote locations.

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Speaker 1: It's a great book. But enough about that book. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the islands just on their own, there are what nearly

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Speaker 1: six hundred and only nine are open to foreign tourists. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: very very rural locations in addition to being very remote, but.

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Speaker 2: They are open to tourism. Those nine, those come into

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Speaker 2: play in the rest of our story.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're very much open to tourism. Locals be damned.

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Speaker 1: And you might say, well, who owns this guys, I'm

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at pointing to countries on the map,

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Speaker 1: and I've never heard of a country called the Andaman

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Speaker 1: and Nicobar Islands. No worries, trick question. There is no country.

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Speaker 1: It is a territory of India and it is controlled

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Speaker 1: by India. Generally, speakings compose these two islands and think

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Speaker 1: about it in terms of latitude. So any of the

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Speaker 1: islands located north of ten degrees latitude are known as

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Speaker 1: Andaman Islands, while islands located south of that latitude are

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Speaker 1: called Nicobar Islands.

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Speaker 2: That's easy enough, that's pretty easy.

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Speaker 1: Nominally, these territories and the island we're talking about today,

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Speaker 1: North Sentinel Island, belong in the South Andman Administrative District,

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Speaker 1: which is again part of this Indian territory. The nearby

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Speaker 1: South Sentinel Island is uninhabited. It occasionally receives visitors, mostly

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Speaker 1: adventurous divers who are like the let's go somewhere no

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Speaker 1: one has, like aber Ben. I'm sure they don't sound

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Speaker 1: like that.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure they sound exactly like.

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Speaker 1: Well, people who people who want adventure. No one lives there.

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Speaker 1: And here's the thing. Although the Government of India legally

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Speaker 1: possesses both North and South Sentinel Island and again all

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Speaker 1: of the Andamans all of the Nicobar Islands, they do

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Speaker 1: not have any installations, no government, no scheduled route of

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Speaker 1: transportation to visit the area. People can visit South Sentinel

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Speaker 1: Island and often probably sneak there, yeah, just to dive

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Speaker 1: for a day or something.

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Speaker 2: Like going without a lifeguard.

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Speaker 1: Basically right, But all the ships in the nearby area

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Speaker 1: and all the planes are banned from approaching North Sentinel

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Speaker 1: Island through the use of a three mile exclusion zone.

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Speaker 1: Because you see, unlike South Sentinel Island, North Sentinel Island

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Speaker 1: is inhabited.

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Speaker 2: But by who, you might ask, Well, we'll tell you

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Speaker 2: right after a quick word from our sponsor.

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Speaker 1: Here's where it gets crazy. The answer to your question, Matt,

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Speaker 1: they posed before the break is we don't really know

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Speaker 1: the residents of North Sentinel Island. The Sentineles are one

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Speaker 1: of the most mysterious populations on the planet, and there

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Speaker 1: aren't many of them. Estimates range from as few as

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Speaker 1: fifty people to maybe as many as four hundred. The

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Speaker 1: last census that the Indian government conducted that touched upon

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Speaker 1: that area, I only found fifteen people. I think three

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Speaker 1: women and twelve men.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, that's something we're going to see here as

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Speaker 2: we get into the story of the people that you

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Speaker 2: find when you're searching for people on North Sentinel Island.

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Speaker 2: Generally aren't all of the people that are on the island.

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Speaker 1: Right, because you see when they conducted that most recent census,

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Speaker 1: the way they conducted it was by taking a boat,

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Speaker 1: by getting special permission to go inside the exclusion zone,

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Speaker 1: and then trying to get close enough to see if

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Speaker 1: there was anyone on the shore, and then immediately high

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Speaker 1: tailing it out post taste.

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Speaker 2: And there's a reason for that.

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Speaker 1: They are violently opposed to outside contact of any kind.

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Speaker 1: This behavior has been universally consistent for thousands of years

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Speaker 1: they've resided on this island, this population living in much

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Speaker 1: the same manner as their ancestors from millennia and from

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Speaker 1: what we can guess, the Sentinel these people practice traditional

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Speaker 1: hunting and gathering with no I mean, I think it's

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Speaker 1: a leap to say no knowledge of agriculture but no

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Speaker 1: practice of it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no evidence of agriculture that's been seen in

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Speaker 2: the few times that people have actually gotten close enough

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Speaker 2: to check it out. Their diet consists of mostly fruits, plants,

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Speaker 2: stuff that's found on the island, coconuts, forest plants. Sometimes

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Speaker 2: they've been know to eat sea turtles, fish, some small birds,

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Speaker 2: and wild honey. And some researchers compare the Sentineliese to

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Speaker 2: the Ungei tribe, which is another tribe that's on the

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Speaker 2: Andamanese Islands. They're indigenous peoples to one of the other islands.

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Speaker 2: And we should just say here that the Sentinel use

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Speaker 2: that name is a name given to them. If you

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Speaker 2: were ever to speak with one and could speak with

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Speaker 2: someone of you know, the North Sentinel Island, they would

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Speaker 2: not call themselves that right exactly.

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Speaker 1: This this culture has several barriers to communication, yes, and

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Speaker 1: we'll get to these, but they the Onay are an

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Speaker 1: excellent example of the one of the closest analogs that

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Speaker 1: we have sure to this population, at least we being

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Speaker 1: the part of the species that doesn't live on this island,

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Speaker 1: we who are forced to guess. So, like the Sentinealese,

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Speaker 1: the Ongay were one hunter gatherers living out an ancient

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Speaker 1: tradition and ancient set of subsistence practices right that date back,

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Speaker 1: by the way to some of the earliest human civilization

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Speaker 1: practices that we know of today. So these are doing

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Speaker 1: these people are doing some of the first things that

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Speaker 1: people did. Still well, the Sentinelese, we suspect yes, not

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Speaker 1: the Gay yes, because unlike the Sentineleese, the on Gay

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Speaker 1: were somewhat assimilated to their detriment. In nineteen oh one,

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Speaker 1: the population was registered at six hundred and seventy two.

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Speaker 1: After colonization, there were fewer than one hundred left. Ultimately,

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Speaker 1: like the number kept going down in the fifties, it

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Speaker 1: was only one hundred and fifty or so, and this

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Speaker 1: was due to the brutal acts of the colonizers. Also

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Speaker 1: unanticipated factors like exposure to non native diseases.

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Speaker 2: Which is one of the biggest problems when making contacts.

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Speaker 1: Right right, right, It's one of the problems with when

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Speaker 1: Europeans came to the North and South American continents, the

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Speaker 1: same things occurred for them.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't a problem, it was a right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well I'm the same for the native populations. Yea,

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Speaker 1: the time it was it was a horrific thing. And

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Speaker 1: there's something else here that on a personal level mystifies

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Speaker 1: and disturbs me. And it does. It disturbs me because

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Speaker 1: I can't explain why it's happening, and I don't understand,

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Speaker 1: and I don't think that there's any technology that people

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Speaker 1: would have had to do this on purpose. There's something

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Speaker 1: deeper at play. Well, anyway, I'm too much preface. Here's

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Speaker 1: what's happening today. The Onnget is still around, but a

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Speaker 1: major cause of the decline in the population is both

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Speaker 1: the changes in food habits brought about by contact with

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Speaker 1: the outside world. But here's the scary thing. Nowadays they're

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Speaker 1: one of the least fertile and most sterile communities on

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Speaker 1: the planet. About forty percent of married couples are sterile.

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Speaker 1: On Gay women rarely become pregnant before the age of

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Speaker 1: twenty eight. Infant and child mortality is in the range

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Speaker 1: of forty percent. Now we could explain, we could explain

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Speaker 1: infinite and child mortality due to you know, quality of

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Speaker 1: life right for the family, for the mother, for the kid,

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Speaker 1: so on. But the idea that an entire population without

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Speaker 1: you know, some clear environmental cause just starts to dwindle

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Speaker 1: that way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't like that at all.

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Speaker 1: It's frighting. It's it's not it's not something that I

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Speaker 1: can explain. I would welcome anybody to write to us

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Speaker 1: and let us know. You know, is there some epigenetic

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Speaker 1: factor at play? Did the community decide not to have children?

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Speaker 2: Or is there some kind of outside force that's acting

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Speaker 2: on them in some way? Right, cical exposure of some

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Speaker 2: sort that they're unaware of.

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Speaker 1: Like force sterilization, which many governments have done, which would yeah,

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Speaker 1: which would be explicable. At least that's a mundane cause.

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Speaker 1: That's less scary than some sort of switch turning, you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So, also, the on gay have been victims of sexual

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Speaker 1: exploitation and alcoholism, forced labor, all the terrible unexpected things

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Speaker 1: that happen often to these tribes. So there may be

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Speaker 1: a lesson for us to learn with the sentinealese through

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Speaker 1: the perspective of the Ongay. Observers have compared the Sentinalese

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Speaker 1: community to communities that existed in the Stone Age. They

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Speaker 1: make weapons, they make tools. They're pretty bad ass with

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Speaker 1: bows and arrows.

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Speaker 2: Yeah it's like three hundred something feet. They can get

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Speaker 2: you with an arrow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, three hundred and four hundred. I think they

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Speaker 1: do not appear to make fire, at least again from

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Speaker 1: what we can observe. And their language is unclassified, meaning

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Speaker 1: it's unintelligible even to tribal communities from close by islands.

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Speaker 1: Like they brought an on gay person there to attempt

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Speaker 1: to speak with them, but they either couldn't get close

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Speaker 1: enough to understand the shouting because of all the arrows,

380
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Speaker 1: or they simply have been the Sentinel Eese simply have

381
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Speaker 1: been isolated for so long again for thousands of years,

382
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Speaker 1: and their language has become its own unintelligible thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that. That is incredible because that certainly doesn't happen.

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Speaker 2: That's one of the least uh regularly occurring things to have,

385
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Speaker 2: and a language that is so isolated, that's incredible. Now

386
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Speaker 2: prior to the European encroachment, Well, that's what we're gonna

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Speaker 2: call it there. There were ancient traditions by the tribespeople

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Speaker 2: who lived around North Sentinel Island that the people on

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Speaker 2: North Centinel Island were cannibals, the only they apparently were

390
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,119
Speaker 2: aware of North Central Islands for some time. But the

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Speaker 2: first European report didn't actually occur until seventeen seventy one,

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Speaker 2: which isn't that long ago, just before the United States

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Speaker 2: became a thing.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's true, Matt, I didn't think of it in

395
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Speaker 1: that perspective. Yeah. This British surveyor named John Ritchie passed

396
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Speaker 1: the island on a ship called the Diligent. The Diligent

397
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Speaker 1: was a hydrographic survey vessel owned by the East India Company. Paul,

398
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Speaker 1: can we get a spooky sound effect when we say

399
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Speaker 1: East India Company?

400
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:46,800
Speaker 2: Just booze? Just put some booze in there, perfect, that's appropriate.

401
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: Yeah. So Richie made one note where he essentially said

402
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,400
Speaker 1: he saw a multitude of lights. We don't know if

403
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: this means fires, Yeah, but he saw it from into

404
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 1: Since he made a short note about it, the boat

405
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: continued on and no one in the West would make

406
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: any sort of reference to this island for another one

407
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 1: hundred years. Yeah, it's just the one guy who's like, oh, whoa,

408
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 1: look at that. That's a that's not water.

409
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Speaker 2: That's definitely an island. Bye.

410
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Speaker 1: So we fast forward to March eighteen sixty seven.

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Speaker 2: That's when Jeremiah Humphrey, he's the officer in charge of

412
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Speaker 2: the Andamanese, he journeyed to North Central Island on the

413
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Speaker 2: trail of some convicts who escaped from this penal colony

414
00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 2: that was there called Port Blair. And Okay, so he

415
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Speaker 2: he's approaching the island, he's escorted by police and what

416
00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 2: they're called Great Andemanese, and these are tribes people from

417
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Speaker 2: like again kind of like what we were discussing before, a

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Speaker 2: different tribe, but I guess similar enough to where perhaps

419
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Speaker 2: there could be communication. He saw some ten men on

420
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Speaker 2: the beach, naked, long haired, with bows and arrows, shooting fish,

421
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Speaker 2: and apparently the Sentineleese spoted the boat and they hid,

422
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,560
Speaker 2: and the Great Antemonese on board were visibly frightened and

423
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,800
Speaker 2: warrened Hamphrey, the leader here that the islanders had a

424
00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:21,360
Speaker 2: reputation for cannibalism, and Hamphrey said, yep, I'm not going there,

425
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Speaker 2: which he never actually landed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, which was surprisingly smart of him right to listen

427
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Speaker 1: to the experts in the area.

428
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Speaker 2: He did have a police escort with him, so it

429
00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 2: is fascinating that he didn't. But I guess maybe he

430
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Speaker 2: just wasn't he wasn't confident enough in the people there

431
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 2: with him. Sure, I don't know.

432
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Speaker 3: Well.

433
00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: Also, notice that at this point, despite this reputation, I'm

434
00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: sure it's largely exaggerated for cannibalism.

435
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:52,200
Speaker 2: Yea.

436
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 1: The Sentinelaes are hiding, they're avoiding and evading, right, they're

437
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: not confronting. And then also there's a note here they're

438
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:08,800
Speaker 1: described as long haired by Mfrey. But when you see

439
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:14,040
Speaker 1: footage of the Sentinlies people today, there are no long

440
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:14,720
Speaker 1: haired people.

441
00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 2: There's just a little bit of footage and your right.

442
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 1: So interesting because it seems as though things are changing.

443
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:25,920
Speaker 1: In that same year again, eighteen sixty seven, an Indian

444
00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:28,880
Speaker 1: merchant ship called the nineveh was wrecked on the reef

445
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 1: surrounding the shore, and their captain was a real piece

446
00:28:32,320 --> 00:28:37,400
Speaker 1: of work. So eighty six passengers survived, twenty crew members survive.

447
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: They make it. They crash on that reef surrounding the island.

448
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: These are also very treacherous waters and boom celebration time

449
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: they survive these what one hundred and six people survive.

450
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 1: On the third day of the native population, which had

451
00:28:55,400 --> 00:29:01,120
Speaker 1: been completely in hiding, attacks the captain. His strategy is

452
00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: to take the ship's lifeboat and run away, Yeah.

453
00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 2: To get picked up by some other ship that's.

454
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: Coming by a passing brig And then a Royal Navy

455
00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:16,000
Speaker 1: ship came to rescue the remaining survivors who had held

456
00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: the natives off by for several days by throwing stones

457
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: and brandishing sticks.

458
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 2: And again this is a story that gets around, so

459
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 2: nobody else goes to that island for another thirteen years.

460
00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:33,040
Speaker 1: Yes, and then in January of eighteen eighty, an armed

461
00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: British expedition manages a successful landing on North Sentinel Island.

462
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: They're led by the officer in charge of the antonomise

463
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: by this time twenty year old fellow by the name

464
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:50,880
Speaker 1: of Maurice Vidal Portman. They went through the island in

465
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 1: search of local people, and they had again some of

466
00:29:55,600 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 1: people from the Greater Antonamese population guiding them. So what

467
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 1: did they find.

468
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing they came upon were a network

469
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 2: of pathways where people had been traveling by foot there

470
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 2: were several freshly abandoned villages that they saw. Again, with

471
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 2: nobody around, they kept surveying the island. They found that it

472
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 2: had fertile soil, there were groves of tropical hardwoods, and

473
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:26,920
Speaker 2: this gentleman Portman didn't see a single human being other

474
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 2: than the people that he brought to the island.

475
00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: So was it a ghost island?

476
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 2: Maybe? But I don't think so. Eventually, after several days

477
00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 2: of searching, the party discovered just six Sentinelies. It was

478
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 2: an elderly couple and they had four children with them.

479
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 2: And you know, as as they tended to do, I

480
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:53,440
Speaker 2: guess in the colonial path, they abducted these six people

481
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:54,920
Speaker 2: and they took them with them.

482
00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, they took them, the parents and the children.

483
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:02,560
Speaker 1: The father was by far the oldest of the six.

484
00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 1: They took them back onto the vessel with them. But

485
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:11,440
Speaker 1: as soon as they were leaving the island, probably because

486
00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:16,760
Speaker 1: they were exposed to new diseases, the family fell ill

487
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: rapidly ill. The parents died, and so in a strange move,

488
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 1: Portman and co. Sent the four surviving children back home

489
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 1: with presents the likes of which the Sentinelese community had

490
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 1: probably never seen before. And he talked about them in

491
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: a really smug, condescending way. He said, you know, he

492
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 1: didn't feel particularly bad about it. He was annoyed by

493
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:47,120
Speaker 1: what he considered to be their mannerisms and idiotic expressions.

494
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:50,440
Speaker 1: That's his choice of wording there.

495
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 2: And they did send four unaccompanied children back to an

496
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 2: island that, to their observation, was uninhabited.

497
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I didn't even think about that part.

498
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 2: Just go Lord of the flies kids, We'll see you later.

499
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: Wow, here's a doll. Yeah. And Portman did go on

500
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,239
Speaker 1: to visit the island several more times. In August of

501
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three. They in August of eighteen eighty three,

502
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: a volcanic explosion was mistaken for the sounds of gunshots

503
00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: and possibly a distress signal, so several search parties go out.

504
00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:34,320
Speaker 1: Portman's search vessel lands on North Sentinel Island. The native

505
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:37,840
Speaker 1: people hide. He doesn't see anyone. Most importantly, he doesn't

506
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: see a ship in distress. So they just leave more

507
00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:43,240
Speaker 1: gifts on the shore and they depart. And then over

508
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 1: the span of eighty five through eighteen eighty seven, he

509
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: visits a few more times, and in his way, in

510
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: a very smug condescending way. Matt, he grows fond of

511
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 1: the natives, and we have a quote when he was

512
00:32:58,880 --> 00:33:03,720
Speaker 1: explaining how his chilly heart had warmed to them.

513
00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 2: In many ways, they closely resemble the average lower class

514
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 2: English country school boy. As you see, I've only ever

515
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 2: seen them running away except for those four children and

516
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,960
Speaker 2: the two parents that I killed with my diseases.

517
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 1: So the beginning of that quote is absolutely true. Yes,

518
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 1: but I think the whole thing really captures the spirit

519
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:29,680
Speaker 1: of where he was coming from. Yeah, maybe a little

520
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,880
Speaker 1: more self aware than he was at the time, but

521
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: then you know, there's a relative period of calm because

522
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:38,720
Speaker 1: why would you go so far out of your way

523
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:40,200
Speaker 1: to visit this place?

524
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,959
Speaker 2: Yeah, there doesn't seem to be any interaction that happens,

525
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 2: at least if you've read the stories or reports of

526
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 2: the previous interactions or lack of so yeah, no, no reason. However,

527
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 2: in eighteen ninety six, three escaped Indian convicts fled that

528
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,240
Speaker 2: Port Blair that we mentioned before. They got on a

529
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 2: makeshift raft and they drifted about thirty miles to North

530
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,080
Speaker 2: Sentinel Island. Here's the deal. Two of the fugitives drowned

531
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 2: in the reefs, that are surrounding the island. Again that

532
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,439
Speaker 2: we've mentioned before. The one guy, the one survivor, made

533
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 2: it to the beach, only to be killed.

534
00:34:15,160 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 1: By the natives.

535
00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:20,440
Speaker 2: By the natives, ostensibly nobody probably saw this, I'm assuming,

536
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 2: but that's what appeared to have happened. A British party

537
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 2: later spotted and retrieved his body, and they noticed that

538
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 2: it was pierced with arrows and his throat was cut.

539
00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 1: Yep.

540
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 2: And after this, North Sentinel Island was left alone for

541
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:40,719
Speaker 2: another almost hundred years.

542
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:44,440
Speaker 1: But what happened after that, There's more to the story

543
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: will continue after a word from our sponsor. So meanwhile,

544
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: for the rest of civilization that was not part of

545
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:03,280
Speaker 1: the community on North Sentinel Island, a bunch of stuff

546
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: was happening, you know what I mean. Amazing inventions, new

547
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:14,640
Speaker 1: depths of human depravity, wars, peace, beautiful moments. Some of

548
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,799
Speaker 1: the most amazing people in history are born and forgotten.

549
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 1: And the people on this island have not only no

550
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,359
Speaker 1: real idea about it, but they just don't want to

551
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: be forced to participate in this whole human experiment. In

552
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: nearby India, in nineteen forty seven, the country finally gains independence,

553
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:41,719
Speaker 1: from British rule, and with this it gains control of

554
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:46,800
Speaker 1: the Andamans and the Nicobar Islands, including North Sentinel Island.

555
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: So things are pretty hectic when you become a newly

556
00:35:51,840 --> 00:35:55,640
Speaker 1: independent country. And they didn't really get to the concept

557
00:35:55,800 --> 00:35:58,880
Speaker 1: of North Sentinel Island or the mysterious people living on

558
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:03,480
Speaker 1: it for about two twenty years. And in nineteen sixty seven,

559
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:09,040
Speaker 1: an Indian anthropologist named Trilonath Pondit was summoned by the

560
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:14,800
Speaker 1: governor of the Andaman Islands for a major expedition to

561
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: North Sentinel Island. Pondit was offered the opportunity to become

562
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 1: the first anthropologists to land there, accompanied by armed police,

563
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:29,000
Speaker 1: naval officers, two large patrol boats and inflatable rubber dinghies

564
00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: to get around the reef without breaking up a ship. Yeah,

565
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:33,640
Speaker 1: and getting trapped.

566
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 2: Not so good against arrows though.

567
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 1: Not so great. Yeah, not so great against arrows. Later

568
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:44,280
Speaker 1: in life, pondits when he's talking about why he agreed

569
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: to do this, he says, there was a feeling that

570
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:50,279
Speaker 1: we were trying to establish friendly contact, which would be

571
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:54,480
Speaker 1: considered an achievement at the government level. So on the

572
00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:59,320
Speaker 1: first expedition, the Sentineleese retreat into the jungle and they

573
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 1: disappear because they know this better than any non native

574
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 1: ever would. There's no contact. So the party leaves gifts

575
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:09,920
Speaker 1: of buckets, cloth and candy and the empty huts of

576
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:14,400
Speaker 1: the village. But they also they also steal some stuff.

577
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did.

578
00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:18,120
Speaker 1: They called it collecting, but they stole some stuff.

579
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 2: And they left blankets and things that could have been tainted.

580
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,919
Speaker 2: As we found with American native populations, something as simple

581
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:28,440
Speaker 2: as a blanket can hold a lot of pathogens.

582
00:37:28,239 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: Can be a vector for disease. Right, So what kind

583
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:32,319
Speaker 1: of stuff did they take?

584
00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 2: Oh, they took bows, arrows, There was a basket and

585
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,359
Speaker 2: even the painted skull of a wild boar. And they

586
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:43,720
Speaker 2: were like, this is ours. Enjoy the things, the candy.

587
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then they return another trip. On the twenty

588
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 1: ninth of March nineteen seventy, Pondit and his party find

589
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 1: themselves trapped on the reflats between North Sentinel Island and

590
00:38:00,120 --> 00:38:04,520
Speaker 1: Constant Islet. Constance is lit was just a little bit

591
00:38:04,600 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: away from the actual island itself, and that when we

592
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:13,280
Speaker 1: talked about how the island grew a little bit larger

593
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 1: after the two thousand and four earthquake and tsunami, the

594
00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:20,759
Speaker 1: same way that the Grinch's heart grew a little bit

595
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:24,480
Speaker 1: larger at the end of the film spoilers. Now, the

596
00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:27,960
Speaker 1: islet is attached to the island, but beforehand you could

597
00:38:28,000 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 1: get caught in between there, just to give the geography.

598
00:38:32,480 --> 00:38:36,919
Speaker 1: So they were certain that they were going to be attacked.

599
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:43,280
Speaker 1: This is it, thought Pandit and company. So Pandit or pandit,

600
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: I want to be clear that we are not native speakers,

601
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:49,880
Speaker 1: so go to be mispronouncing this name. They were certain

602
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:52,640
Speaker 1: that this was going to spell the end and that

603
00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 1: they were going to die in the pursuit of this

604
00:38:55,760 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 1: great anthropological experiment. But something un expected occurred. So at

605
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:11,319
Speaker 1: first they see that the they see that two of

606
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 1: the natives who were just sort of observing them have

607
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:21,560
Speaker 1: realized that they're stuck. And more people come out of

608
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 1: the cover, more men, more warriors, threatening to shoot at them,

609
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: you know, brandishing their arrows, and so they try to

610
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:33,320
Speaker 1: appease them by giving them fish that they had caught,

611
00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 1: but that didn't work. More dudes were coming at them,

612
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer to shoot, and when they got fish,

613
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: some of them started to calm down. But other people

614
00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:57,239
Speaker 1: weren't having it, and they were still hostile, so they

615
00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,279
Speaker 1: were still taking the fish, but then just picking the

616
00:39:59,320 --> 00:40:02,279
Speaker 1: bows back up, getting ready to kill them. So the

617
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:05,200
Speaker 1: guys were thinking, eventually, we're going to run out of fish,

618
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:09,240
Speaker 1: right what then, at this moment this is a quote

619
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: from an eyewitness account in the seventies. At this moment,

620
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,640
Speaker 1: a strange thing happened. A woman paired off with a

621
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 1: warrior and sat on the sand in a passionate embrace.

622
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:20,440
Speaker 1: This act was being repeated by other women, each claiming

623
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 1: a warrior for herself, a sort of community mating, as

624
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:27,360
Speaker 1: it were. Thus did the militant group diminish. This continued

625
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:29,640
Speaker 1: for quite some time, and when the tempo of this

626
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:33,200
Speaker 1: frenzied dance of desire abated, the couples retired into the

627
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:37,200
Speaker 1: shade of the jungle. However, some warriors were still on guard.

628
00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:39,880
Speaker 1: We got close to the shore and throw some more fish,

629
00:40:39,880 --> 00:40:42,840
Speaker 1: which were immediately retrieved by a few youngsters. It was

630
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:45,720
Speaker 1: well past noon, so we headed back to the ship.

631
00:40:46,640 --> 00:40:47,040
Speaker 2: Wow.

632
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: So they managed to survive, but they had to watch

633
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 1: something very weird.

634
00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:57,239
Speaker 2: Very personal interesting. I wonder what kind of because it

635
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 2: must be a show of force in some way. I

636
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 2: don't know.

637
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:03,520
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, we're not anthropologists, man.

638
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:05,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it was just the time of day that

639
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:08,759
Speaker 2: was the thing that happened at that time. We could

640
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 2: just think about it all day long. Yeah, I think

641
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,719
Speaker 2: it's more like, I think there's gotta be power in

642
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:16,560
Speaker 2: there somewhere.

643
00:41:16,440 --> 00:41:19,520
Speaker 1: Right, maybe a calming effect or something. I don't know,

644
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe something ritualistic, who knows, who knows.

645
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:25,879
Speaker 1: We would like to hear your theories as well, right

646
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:30,200
Speaker 1: to us conspiracy at HowStuffWorks dot com. They're also unproven

647
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 1: murders or at least missing person cases associated with the island.

648
00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:38,719
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. In that same year of nineteen seventy, there

649
00:41:38,760 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 2: was a wreck that was spotted on a coral reef

650
00:41:40,760 --> 00:41:43,800
Speaker 2: right on the southeast coast of the island, and after

651
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,120
Speaker 2: people were looking at it to see what the heck's

652
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:48,000
Speaker 2: going on here, it was concluded that the vessel had

653
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:50,880
Speaker 2: been just sitting there for about seven or eight months,

654
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,439
Speaker 2: and there was no sign of the crew, no sign

655
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 2: of the fate of the crew. So who knows. That

656
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:58,960
Speaker 2: one's just a mystery, and I don't think we'll ever

657
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:04,279
Speaker 2: have a just a concrete reason for why that happened.

658
00:42:05,600 --> 00:42:09,399
Speaker 1: And then of course the big the big deal, right,

659
00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:14,640
Speaker 1: the big tent. As far as the encounters go, it's

660
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 1: we can tell you the story of the encounter that

661
00:42:20,480 --> 00:42:23,560
Speaker 1: actually had video footage, which you mentioned earlier, right, Matt.

662
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:26,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of the only existing it is really

663
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:29,279
Speaker 2: it's the only existing footage that I have seen of

664
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,760
Speaker 2: the Sentinel ease. It was in the spring of nineteen

665
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:35,279
Speaker 2: seventy four when there was a visit by this team

666
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 2: of anthropologists and they were filming a documentary called Man

667
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,759
Speaker 2: in Search of Man, and there was a National Geographic

668
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:45,760
Speaker 2: photographer with them. They're also armed police officers. They actually

669
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:50,719
Speaker 2: wore padded armor they had under these jackets, and again

670
00:42:50,760 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 2: who's to say what that does against arrows. Hopefully that

671
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 2: would have been, you know, some kind of protection, but

672
00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 2: who knows sure. And there is actual footage that you

673
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,480
Speaker 2: can see. I believe that's the nineteen seventy four footage,

674
00:43:04,520 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 2: unless it's from earlier. It's the only one that I've seen.

675
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 2: I think. Then in September nineteen ninety one, after both

676
00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 2: confirmed and suspected deaths at the hands of the Sentinel Is,

677
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 2: the Indian government added this this zone. It's a five

678
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 2: kilometer three mile exclusion zone around the island, and it's

679
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:28,080
Speaker 2: under the provisions of the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of

680
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:33,239
Speaker 2: Aboriginal Tribes Regulation. It's called a n pat R.

681
00:43:35,000 --> 00:43:39,360
Speaker 1: Yes, love a good acronym. Right. We should also add,

682
00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,720
Speaker 1: you know, nobody died in the nineteen seventy four incident,

683
00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,440
Speaker 1: but oh yeah, I got shot through the thigh. I

684
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 1: think that was their reaction to giving the gifts.

685
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:50,320
Speaker 2: Yeah.

686
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:53,759
Speaker 1: So it's interesting because before this exclusion zone exists, and

687
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:58,719
Speaker 1: before it gets extended even we see this history of

688
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: people trying to peacefully high stay away from US outsiders,

689
00:44:03,880 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 1: and then at some point in this occasional you know,

690
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:11,719
Speaker 1: every every few decades, every century or so, in this

691
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 1: occasional badgering from the outside world, the sentinel ease stop

692
00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:18,359
Speaker 1: putting up with this.

693
00:44:18,560 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, who knows what internal folklore they've they have

694
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 2: now for the people that come and visit them every

695
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 2: few decades.

696
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are there's Okay, so there are a couple

697
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:31,400
Speaker 1: of indications that they might have some ancient myths similar

698
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:37,080
Speaker 1: to those of the Onngay. But it's just in the

699
00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:40,000
Speaker 1: only way we know is that when that two thousand

700
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:43,960
Speaker 1: and four disaster occurred. They got to high ground, so

701
00:44:44,040 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: they knew to they knew that some sort of natural

702
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:53,080
Speaker 1: disturbance was coming, and that may be based on an

703
00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:57,760
Speaker 1: oral history about similar events in the distant past shared

704
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:00,560
Speaker 1: with the people would later become known as the Game.

705
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:06,600
Speaker 1: So that's possible. But can you imagine we're entirely speculating here, Matt.

706
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what oral histories may exist now, based

707
00:45:10,680 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 1: on those four kids who returned? Yeah right, I mean

708
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:19,160
Speaker 1: that sounds insane. You know, they took me, they killed

709
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,520
Speaker 1: my parents, they brought me back with this.

710
00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:25,560
Speaker 2: These strange beings on ships. We saw things that looked

711
00:45:25,600 --> 00:45:29,160
Speaker 2: like this that we have no way of really describing

712
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:29,480
Speaker 2: to you.

713
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:35,960
Speaker 1: Right, And these deaths at the hands of the Sentineleese

714
00:45:36,440 --> 00:45:40,480
Speaker 1: residents still occur. In two thousand and six, two men

715
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,880
Speaker 1: were illegally fishing from mud crabs off the coast and

716
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:48,640
Speaker 1: North Sentinel Island, and the Sentineleese killed them. An Indian

717
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:52,640
Speaker 1: Coastguard helicopter tried to go retrieve the bodies, and it

718
00:45:52,719 --> 00:45:58,360
Speaker 1: was warded off by bows and arrows and ambitious explorers.

719
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 1: An anthropologists attempting to make first contact may have already

720
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 1: violated the prime directive. In some ways, they may have

721
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:14,840
Speaker 1: accelerated the age of the civilization or culture on the island.

722
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:17,800
Speaker 1: And by age, I don't mean just age in terms

723
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,920
Speaker 1: of numbers. I mean the technological age. They may have

724
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 1: gone from the Stone Age to something else, because we

725
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,560
Speaker 1: have to remember these are people. They may be living

726
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 1: differently than many other people on the planet, but that

727
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 1: doesn't make them not human. They're still really smart because

728
00:46:34,719 --> 00:46:38,839
Speaker 1: human beings are for the most part, insanely supervillain level

729
00:46:38,920 --> 00:46:43,760
Speaker 1: brilliant in comparison to other living things. And that means

730
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,040
Speaker 1: that they took salvaged metal and they made weapons, they

731
00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:52,400
Speaker 1: made ornaments, they made jewelry. But as we get to

732
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:58,720
Speaker 1: the end of today's show, we know that the they

733
00:46:59,120 --> 00:47:03,880
Speaker 1: in today's episod Zode is the Sentinelesee people, and the

734
00:47:03,920 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know is anything about

735
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:12,520
Speaker 1: how they live, or what their lives are like, or

736
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:17,920
Speaker 1: what they think about you, specifically you, specifically Matt Paul

737
00:47:18,320 --> 00:47:21,800
Speaker 1: nol and I as well. They want to be left alone.

738
00:47:22,280 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: And is that so bad? What should happen to the

739
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:28,279
Speaker 1: residents of the island. We're asking you, should they be

740
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:31,600
Speaker 1: left alone? As is apparently their desire or is it

741
00:47:31,640 --> 00:47:36,440
Speaker 1: too late already? Will they need assistance as local wildlife

742
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 1: dies out as oceanic biodiversity decreases, you know, and like

743
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,480
Speaker 1: it's all well and good to say that we should

744
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:50,879
Speaker 1: leave this community alone. But some people would argue, well,

745
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:55,840
Speaker 1: what if environmental catastrophes make their way of life unsustainable?

746
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:59,000
Speaker 1: Does the human species have a responsibility to help the

747
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:00,000
Speaker 1: people on this island?

748
00:48:00,719 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 2: Yeah?

749
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:05,080
Speaker 1: I think they're two. I see the sides in both

750
00:48:05,120 --> 00:48:07,560
Speaker 1: of these arguments. Personally, I'm more on the leave them

751
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:13,400
Speaker 1: alone side. Yeah, everything I have ever witnessed about this

752
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:17,759
Speaker 1: this sort of situation tells me that it's it's okay

753
00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:21,399
Speaker 1: to not want to participate. You shouldn't force people to

754
00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:22,160
Speaker 1: do stuff.

755
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:25,880
Speaker 2: I think you're right there. There is a point to

756
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:30,040
Speaker 2: be made about perhaps they are just protecting their own

757
00:48:30,280 --> 00:48:34,759
Speaker 2: and their territory rather than really not wanting to be contacted,

758
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:34,960
Speaker 2: you know.

759
00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:39,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Indian government has never prosecuted them for any

760
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:41,680
Speaker 1: of these murders, by the way, and they are murders,

761
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:44,959
Speaker 1: or you could call them cultural self defense. But when

762
00:48:44,960 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 1: we ask this question, we also have to ask I

763
00:48:50,000 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 1: don't want to tilt the scales too much. But we

764
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,759
Speaker 1: also have to ask ourselves what happened to the other

765
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:03,560
Speaker 1: indigenous peoples of these island groups when outsiders contacted them.

766
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:08,160
Speaker 2: Well, we have one example that's not the same and

767
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:11,680
Speaker 2: in really many respects, but we can see the effects

768
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,960
Speaker 2: that civilization has had on them. They're called the Jarawa.

769
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:18,560
Speaker 2: They were a native tribe and a Native Andaman tribe,

770
00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:22,480
Speaker 2: and there is a They live on one island where

771
00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:26,520
Speaker 2: there is a road that goes through their reservation essentially

772
00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:28,799
Speaker 2: on this island. They're kind of in the center of

773
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:31,520
Speaker 2: the island, and then there's there are like some tourist

774
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 2: areas and other Indian locals who live on the outer

775
00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:36,839
Speaker 2: side and the outer rim of the island, and there's

776
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:39,759
Speaker 2: some civilization out there. And this road that goes right

777
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:43,400
Speaker 2: through their reservation was in use for a while, but

778
00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:47,000
Speaker 2: then it was decided by the Indian government that hey,

779
00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:50,520
Speaker 2: we should not use this road anymore. We're interrupting the

780
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 2: life of this tribe, this relatively uncontacted tribe, because I

781
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:56,200
Speaker 2: think nineteen ninety eight was the first time that they

782
00:49:56,200 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 2: were officially contacted. Then tourism kind of became the thing

783
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 2: where this road began. These companies started taking human safaris

784
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:14,200
Speaker 2: down this road where they would get in vans at

785
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:18,480
Speaker 2: large jeeps and pay people money to take these trips

786
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,200
Speaker 2: to perhaps get a chance look at some of these

787
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:24,399
Speaker 2: tribes people just living their lives and looking at them

788
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 2: as though they're in a zoo or something. It's a

789
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 2: pretty horrifying thought, especially just it feels very icky first

790
00:50:34,960 --> 00:50:36,719
Speaker 2: of all, but then the second thing is that you

791
00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:39,840
Speaker 2: are disturbing these people in their way of life. Every

792
00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:42,799
Speaker 2: time a single vehicle goes by on this road that

793
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:47,439
Speaker 2: they make an encounter. It's pretty crazy. You can also

794
00:50:47,480 --> 00:50:49,879
Speaker 2: just grab a taxi by the way and go through there.

795
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:52,560
Speaker 2: You do have to get through a military checkpoint and

796
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,680
Speaker 2: you are not allowed, at least according to the authorities

797
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 2: there and all the signs they put up. You're not

798
00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:00,520
Speaker 2: allowed to take any pictures, photography or video of the

799
00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:03,880
Speaker 2: Jarwa tribe, which is I guess a good thing, but

800
00:51:04,600 --> 00:51:08,040
Speaker 2: how do you police you know that many people in

801
00:51:08,120 --> 00:51:11,600
Speaker 2: that many vehicles going through at the time. It's just

802
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:15,600
Speaker 2: not great. And the other thing are destination resorts which

803
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 2: are all around these islands, specifically those nine islands that

804
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:26,000
Speaker 2: are inhabited or I guess eight, But there are resorts

805
00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:29,520
Speaker 2: and there's a tradition for local peoples who live on

806
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:34,759
Speaker 2: these islands, peoples of I guess Western civilization, who burn

807
00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:37,719
Speaker 2: their refuse. That's what they do. They've got, you know,

808
00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:41,680
Speaker 2: their small residences and they burn their trash. These larger resorts, though,

809
00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:44,360
Speaker 2: make so much trash that there's no way to really

810
00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:49,440
Speaker 2: burn it without creating massive issues. So then it becomes

811
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 2: a different massive issue where it's just a giant pile

812
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:56,719
Speaker 2: of trash. And there are multiple resorts around these islands.

813
00:51:57,280 --> 00:51:59,520
Speaker 2: So anyway, that's just one thing to think about. If

814
00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:03,000
Speaker 2: North st to the island ever becomes contacted to the

815
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:07,480
Speaker 2: point where there are buildings and businesses being put up

816
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,160
Speaker 2: on the island, we can kind of see what might

817
00:52:10,200 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 2: happen to the tribe.

818
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:15,799
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, you can also in addition to the point

819
00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:19,800
Speaker 1: you've made met you can also check out videos of

820
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:27,439
Speaker 1: some of these native people being taunted to dance for

821
00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 1: food and similar things like that. So the question is

822
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:35,920
Speaker 1: now that we know the stuff they don't want you

823
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 1: to know. On the Sentinalese side, what is humanity to do?

824
00:52:41,800 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 1: Is the government of India correct to create this exclusion

825
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:51,720
Speaker 1: zone and to force all traffic to keep this island

826
00:52:52,800 --> 00:52:59,239
Speaker 1: essentially lost in time or should something else be done?

827
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:05,120
Speaker 1: If so, and if so, how we don't have the answers.

828
00:53:05,239 --> 00:53:08,120
Speaker 1: I mean, clearly, Matt, I'm gonna go out on a

829
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 1: limb and say you're also on the side of leave

830
00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 1: them alone.

831
00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:15,120
Speaker 2: Yes, but I'm aware of the inevitability that they will

832
00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:19,040
Speaker 2: I mean, they will be engulfed by civilization at some point.

833
00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 2: Time is very long and humanity expands ever so.

834
00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:27,880
Speaker 1: Well, let me ask you this, what if what if

835
00:53:28,160 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 1: someone in the population decides to build several boats and

836
00:53:33,680 --> 00:53:36,640
Speaker 1: what if they, under their own power, go into the

837
00:53:36,640 --> 00:53:40,040
Speaker 1: outside world? What then? You know what I mean, It's

838
00:53:40,120 --> 00:53:43,880
Speaker 1: different because that goes both ways, this human need for expansion.

839
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:47,600
Speaker 1: So at this point we don't know the answers. No

840
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:51,960
Speaker 1: one does. We wanted to introduce you to one of

841
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:57,080
Speaker 1: the most secret places in the world, right one of

842
00:53:57,120 --> 00:54:01,720
Speaker 1: the places where you most likely we'll never get to travel.

843
00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:04,640
Speaker 2: And don't. If you do get a chance, just don't.

844
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:10,120
Speaker 1: And probably you shouldn't, right, I'm I'm having a tough

845
00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:13,120
Speaker 1: time saying that. I know it's the right thing to do, Matt.

846
00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:16,279
Speaker 1: I know you're right, but again we want to hear

847
00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:19,000
Speaker 1: from you. Thank you so much for tuning into the show.

848
00:54:19,239 --> 00:54:23,319
Speaker 1: Friends and Neighbors, fellow conspiracy realist. You can find us

849
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:25,839
Speaker 1: on Instagram. You can find us on Twitter. You can

850
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:29,799
Speaker 1: find us on Facebook, especially our community page. Here's where

851
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:31,120
Speaker 1: it gets crazy, and.

852
00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:34,680
Speaker 2: That's the end of this classic episode. If you have

853
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:38,879
Speaker 2: any thoughts or questions about this episode, you can get

854
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:41,320
Speaker 2: into contact with us in a number of different ways.

855
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:43,080
Speaker 2: One of the best is to give us a call.

856
00:54:43,120 --> 00:54:47,960
Speaker 2: Our number is one eight three three STDWYTK. If you

857
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:49,840
Speaker 2: don't want to do that, you can send us a

858
00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:51,040
Speaker 2: good old fashioned email.

859
00:54:51,280 --> 00:54:55,439
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860
00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:57,640
Speaker 2: Stuff they Don't Want you to Know is a production

861
00:54:57,760 --> 00:55:02,279
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862
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