People of North Sentinel Island -- credit: Jean-Pierre GuyotIs there a Responsible Way to Make Contact with “Uncontacted” Indigenous Peoples? Kimberly Curtis November 27, 2018 By: Kimberly Curtis on November 27, 
People of North Sentinel Island -- credit: Jean-Pierre GuyotIs there a Responsible Way to Make Contact with “Uncontacted” Indigenous Peoples? Kimberly Curtis November 27, 2018 By: Kimberly Curtis on November 27, 2018The recent death of an American missionary at the hands of tribespeople on North Sentinel Island in India has brought the issue of uncontacted peoples back into the news. Often referred to as some of the most vulnerable people in the world, uncontacted tribes are both a legacy of the past and the responsibility of policymakers today as doing what is best for them often means trying to stay as far away as possible.The Sentinelese are just one group that is classified as uncontacted. It is believed that there are over 100 uncontacted tribes in the world today, largely in South America and remote, rugged locations like West Papua in Indonesia and neighboring Papua New Guinea. Despite the term “uncontacted” some of these groups have experienced contact with the outside world, albeit such contact is generally negative and rarely voluntary. In the case of the Sentinelese, contact with the British led to the kidnapping of six Sentinelese in 1880, two of which became sick and died shortly after their capture. While the other four were allowed to return to the island unharmed, it is unknown what impact their exposure to British and Indian pathogens had for the rest of the tribe. However since then, the Sentinelese have made clear they want no part of dealings with outsides, regularly shooting arrows at boats that get too close to shore and passing helicopters surveilling the island from the air.Reports on the Sentinelese often describe them as savage, violent and a remnant of the stone age. While they are believed to be descended from some of the first human migrations out of Africa, they have also demonstrated an adept ability to adapt to new situations and conditions. One of the only people to have made repeated contact in recent history views them as peaceful, but understandably protective of their land and people. Rather than primitive, surveillance footage shows them to be healthy with a thriving society, a condition that is dependent on remaining isolated from the outside world.This is because the rest of the world poses a much bigger threat to uncontacted peoples than they pose to us.Their long-term isolation, ranging from centuries to millennia, means they have no immunity to modern diseases. When Europeans came to the Americas, they brought diseases ranging from the typically benign like influenza and strep to the more fatal smallpox. They also brought diseases like the bubonic plague, itself an import to Europe from Asia that ultimately killed possibly as much as half of medieval Europe’s population within a decade. For indigenous Americans, all of these diseases posed an existential threat. Over the next 500 years, an estimated 90% of the indigenous population would be killed. Certainly some of this is due to the other legacy of European colonization: massacres, mistreatment, enslavement and military campaigns. But it was common disease that brought about most of this death.Many of the uncontacted tribes in South America actually fled these developments centuries ago. But the diseases and massacres they left back then still pose a threat today. In 2014, Brazilian authorities made contact with members of the Xinane tribe. But within a day of this casual conflict, observers noticed that several members of the tribe were coughing and looking ill. It turned out some members contracted the flu and