Indigenous Rights Activist: Why Uncontacted Tribes Should Be Left Alone

As the sun set on the evening of the Nov. 15, 2018, John Allen Chau sat contemplating North Sentinel Island, where he was soon to meet his end. He had long dreamed of making contact with the Sentinelese people, and his diary tells us he was “disappointed” that they had not accepted his advances to them: “My name is John. I love you and Jesus loves you!” He writes of a language barrier, but the simple message they were communicating somehow eluded him entirely.