The indigenous people of North Sentinel Island have been living there for an estimated 60,000 years. The island is similar in size to Manhattan and is located in the Indian Ocean.
Around 80 to 150 individuals live on the island and rely on hunting and gathering, similar to the Stone Age. They do not practice agriculture.
Many attempts have been made to contact them from the outside world, but these efforts have been met with strong hostility.
In 1771, a ship from the East India Company saw lights on the shore of North Sentinel Island but did not investigate further. In 1867, an Indian merchant ship was forced to land on the island due to heavy monsoons.
After spending three days there, the crew was attacked by a barrage of arrows. They defended themselves with basic weapons until the Royal Navy came to their rescue.
In 1880, the British returned to the island and found a deserted village. They kidnapped six Sentinelese individuals, but all of them became ill when exposed to the outside world. In 1896, an escaped convict reached the island, but his body was discovered with arrows and a slit throat.
In 2018, an American Christian missionary went to the island to convert the indigenous people. He encountered two armed Sentinelese who approached him aggressively.
Despite warning shots, one of which struck his Bible, the missionary continued to approach them, expressing love and religious beliefs. He was killed by arrows and buried on the beach, with his body still unrecovered.
Chau was born in Alabama in 1991 and enjoyed spending time outside throughout his childhood.
He graduated from Oral Roberts University in 2014 and began going on mission trips in 2015. He illegally visited North Sentinel Island in 2018 in an attempt to convert the Sentinelese.
Although there have been a few recorded contacts with the Sentinelese, the most successful was perhaps in 1991 by Indian anthropologist T.N. Pandit.
His team, after many years of attempts, managed to have a peaceful contact where they left coconuts and other gifts without being attacked.
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