I recently fell down the rabbit hole of the North Sentinel Island tribe.
For those who, like me up until a few days ago, couldn't tell "North" from "Sentinel," I'll give you a quick summary:
North Sentinel Island is a tiny, heavily forested slab of land in the Bay of Bengal, part of India's Andaman Islands.
Its inhabitants — the Sentinelese — are believed to have lived there for upwards of 60,000 years, making them one of the last uncontacted tribes on the planet.
Nobody knows what language they speak, what they call themselves, or even how many of them there are (estimates range from 50 to 500).
They hunt with bows, arrows, and spears, live off the sea and forest, and have zero interest in joining the rest of us in the 21st century.
Probably not a bad thing, to be fair.
The British tried to make friends in the 1800s.
By that, I mean kidnapping a few of them — two of whom died, the rest were sent back sick — and it's been arrows-first-questions-after ever since.
India now enforces a 5-kilometre exclusion zone around the island, and the official policy is essentially:
Leave them the hell alone.
But there's one thing that separates these ancient tribes from others we've established contact with:
The North Sentinelese are HIGHLY aggressive towards outsiders.
Find yourself shipwrecked?
Brace yourself for a throng of arrows.
Washed up on the beach?
You're probably getting impaled by a spear.
Looking to offer them a plump pig and coconuts as a sign of peace?
You'd better bring your holy book.
Speaking of religious folk…
They even killed a missionary in 2018 who tried to spread the Word, and buried his body in the sand. His corpse still hasn't been recovered. Hell, even after the 2004 tsunami — of which, fun fact, I was in India when it occurred — Indian authorities sent a plane over to perform a welfare check on the islanders.
Not only were they alive and well…
They tried shooting down the aircraft with, you guessed it…
MORE ARROWS.
It's actually quite endearing how angry this tribe is.
It is also safe to say they want nothing to do with outsiders, and in many ways, they shouldn't.
(Will not expand.)
Still, I have no desire to leave this rabbit hole any time soon.
It's far too fascinating.
You know what else is intriguing?
This North Sentinelese tribe weirdly reminds me of the Oocha clan in the Forbidden Forest. Not a lot is mentioned of them beyond Book 2 of The Divided Region, but they have an uncanny similarity in not tolerating outsiders.
Not even other tribespeople.
Merely killing their victims isn't enough for this lot.
No, no.
They go as far as devouring their victims, desecrating their bodies, and dangling their skulls on treetops.
Pretty freaky stuff.
If you haven't brushed up against this tribe yet, you can do so in Forbidden Forest, which is available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/Forbidden-Forest
Though, if you haven't read Exiled yet, you might want to hold off and read that first.
Otherwise, if you have read the series so far and would like to learn more about this violent tribe, you'll find them in PART IV: THE PEOPLE in Lore & Order: Chronicles of Estos.
What's that I hear?
You haven't got that yet?
Ah! Fret not, my faithful follower. Here's where you can make good of that:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/lore-and-order
Have a great weekend, Legionnaire.
Stay classy.
DJJW