Beyond North Sentinel: here are 5 other isolated tribes in the world
- Most live in the jungles of South America
- They face threats from encroaching oil and logging industries
An American killed by members of an isolated Indian tribe has turned a spotlight not only on the bow-wielding natives of North Sentinel Island but on “uncontacted” tribes around the world.
Chau, 27, hoped to “declare Jesus” to them.
The Sentinelese lack immunity to common diseases such as the flu, and exposure from outsiders threatens their population, according to Survival International, a non-profit focused on indigenous rights.
Tribes elsewhere in the world face disease as well as land loss to industries such as ranching and logging.
Here’s a look at indigenous groups largely isolated from the outside world.
Awá (Brazil)
Dubbed the “world’s most endangered tribe,” perhaps 100 of the Awá’s roughly 600 members still live nomadically in the Amazon forest covering Brazil’s border with Peru, according to an in-depth National Geographic report this year.
They live with “near constant” threats from illegal logging and wildfires, the magazine found, inspiring another tribe – the Guajajara – to rise up to protect them as “Forest Guardians”.