Though Portman had good intentions, his lack of tact and understanding of disease made the first real contact quite awful. In the modern era, we have much more understanding of disease vulnerabilities and dealing with hostile tribes. For the most part, governments have been good about leaving obviously isolationist tribes such as the Sentinelese free from contact.
While many people believe that the Sentinelese should be left completely alone with their own unique culture there are others who think integration with the modern world would be the best both for modern humans and the Sentinelese. Those who argue for no contact make an excellent point about the amount of death and destruction present in even friendly integrations.
Even the modern medical system would have difficulties protecting all the Sentinelese from disease. Also, an unfortunate pattern of drug and alcohol abuse is common among integrated native tribes who have not had generations to get used to their presence. The nearby Onge suffer from such addictions despite otherwise integrating well.
On the other side of the argument, we just must imagine how difficult life can be for primitive tribes. No access to modern medicine means that infant and child mortality must be quite high on the island. We also have no idea if the tribe is cannibalistic, a moral outrage that most would surely seek to stop. Going from morals, many religious groups would love to spread their respective beliefs to these people lacking the proper path in life. Finally, imagine the thousands of years of technology these people simply have no comprehension of. Just paper and ink would be amazing in our modern form, imagine an introduction of the internet or even showing a world map and teaching the Sentinelese where they sit in relation to the world.
Since the 1970’s we have made several attempts at friendly contact with the Sentinelese, not necessarily for integration but more to establish repetitive friendly contact to ease the hostile nature of the tribe. A documentary crew from National Geographic broke through the reefs to make contact and brought a pig, many coconuts, and aluminum cookware. The Sentinelese took the coconuts and cookware, but killed and buried the pig and sent a shower of arrows at the film crew. The whole documentary was canceled when an arrow wounded the director in the leg. The warrior who fired the arrow sat down and openly laughed at the ensuing chaos.
Over more than a decade of gift-giving being greeted with hostility, a breakthrough occurred in the ’90s as an unarmed group of Sentinelese met with visiting anthropologists. Language is still a huge barrier, but anthropologists have picked up on nonverbal languages such as peaceful greetings and threatening behavior that signal it’s time to leave.
There have been three shipwrecks on North Sentinel island over the last 40 years. In one case, a stranded ship’s crew watched from the reefs as the Sentinelese gathered weapons and began building ships to get to the wreck. Luckily, bad weather prevented the Sentinelese from getting to the sailors before they were rescued.
In a more unfortunate incident in 2006, two fishermen in a small boat drifted into the reefs after a day of illegal fishing near the island. Their anchor seems to have failed after the duo fell asleep for the night. Fellow fishermen called the coast guard but nothing could be done in time as the Sentinelese rushed the boat and killed the two men. Helicopters that tried to recover the bodies were met by arrow fire and retreated.
Few missions to contact the Sentinelese are planned. They were believed to have been wiped out by the massive 2004 earthquake and tsunami, but helicopter surveys were met with the familiar arrow volleys. The tectonic activity helped the Sentinelese as it lifted the island a bit, adding more area and forming a land bridge to a very small island to the south. Estimates of their population range from only a few dozen to as many as a few hundred, we really have no good way to peer through the thick jungle to find out.
Who knows when the Sentinelese will be integrated with the rest of the world, at some point it seems like an inevitability. Maybe we will learn something from their tribe as well, possibly discover new species and even medicinal plants that the Sentinelese may have been using for millennia. For now, the Sentinelese seem content to be left alone and are violent enough to protect their island from all but large armed groups.
Sources For Further Reading:
Survival International – The Sentinelese
Atlas & Boots – North Sentinel Island: A Timeline of The World’s Most Isolated Tribe
National Geographic Channel – Alleged Massacre of Uncontacted Tribe Linked to Gold Mining
Science Magazine – Raids by Uncontacted Amazon Tribes Raise Fears of Violence
National Geographic Channel – Tragic Attack Sparks Concern for Future of Isolated Amazon Tribes
NDTV – What We Know About Sentinelese, Hostile Tribe That Killed an American
The Guardian – American killed by isolated tribe on North Sentinel Island in Andamans
History Collection – 20 Islands That Hide Strange Secrets In Their Histories