0:00

From UFOs to psychic powers

0:02

and government conspiracies. History

0:04

is riddled with unexplained events. You

0:07

can turn back now or learn

0:09

the stuff they don't want you to know. M

0:24

Hello, welcome back to the show. My name

0:26

is Matt. Noel is off on an adventure

0:28

that we can't disclose yet, but

0:31

soon they called me Ben. We

0:33

are joined with our super producer,

0:36

Paul Decant Paul Wilson

0:38

Decade. Maybe is that appropriate for this

0:41

episode? Matt, you mean you're talking about

0:43

the soccer ball? Yes? Most importantly,

0:46

you are you and you are here, and

0:48

that makes this stuff they don't

0:50

want you to know. Today, we

0:53

are diving into something

0:55

that Matt, you and I explore during

0:57

our video series. Yes,

1:00

and it's I think our fifth most

1:02

popular video that we ever made. Really,

1:04

Yes, almost a million dollar views

1:07

at this point. All these smokes

1:09

still not going to beat that. Uh

1:11

what about Satan? Yeah, Satan will always

1:13

be at the top. And I'm kind of I

1:16

feel very fortunate for both of us that

1:19

not that many people watched the

1:21

instructions on How to Get Away with Murder?

1:24

Yes, less than fifty I

1:27

want to say great, but that's still

1:29

a lot of people. That's a lot of people,

1:31

and we do. We we do tell

1:33

people not to commit murder, right, we

1:36

do. At some point in that one, we can take

1:38

it down. Do you want me to take it down? I

1:40

know, you know. I

1:43

I feel like we did a good job, is

1:45

the thing? Okay, a

1:49

moral notions aside. It

1:51

does feel like we did a good job. But yes,

1:53

we did a video on North

1:56

Sentinel Island several

1:59

years ago, more years than

2:01

I think. Well, you probably

2:03

don Matt. When do we do that one? I believe it has

2:07

been a minute since I looked at it. It's been a while.

2:10

Uh So North Sentinel Island

2:12

has a mystery to it, and

2:15

if you have seen our earlier

2:18

video, you might have an inkling

2:20

about what we're going to dive into today.

2:24

But to get to this mystery,

2:26

we have to first

2:28

explore human beings.

2:30

Oh that sounds good. Yeah, that's great. Human

2:33

beings are a species that loves to talk about

2:35

itself. That's us, and that's

2:37

us, that's you, that's you doo

2:40

uh and yes, specifically

2:42

you. So human beings.

2:44

Our species exist to some

2:47

degree on every continent, which

2:49

is insane when you think about it. Our

2:51

tremendous ability to adapt to inhospitable

2:54

environments has spread us across

2:56

the planet, and the modern age, technological

2:59

breaks allow us to communicate instantaneously

3:02

regardless of our physical location.

3:06

I mean, just just think of all the podcasts

3:08

that have Like you and I

3:11

prefer to hang out in person in the

3:13

room, but there are many very successful,

3:16

very fascinating podcast with hosts

3:18

that rarely see each other in person,

3:21

much like stuff you missed in history class.

3:24

Yeah, that's that's actually I'm surprised

3:26

I didn't think about that. Yeah, one of our

3:28

host is based in Atlanta on that show, and the other

3:30

in Boston, and they can communicate

3:33

pretty much instantaneous.

3:35

Sounds like they're having a conversation in the room.

3:37

And one more thing I just want to add here we're talking about

3:39

the humans us living on all these

3:41

continents, we also live on islands that

3:43

aren't considered a continent all over

3:45

the planet. That's true. That's true,

3:48

and even in those

3:50

spaces people can communicate

3:53

thanks to technology. Modernity,

3:55

it seems, is contagious. But

3:59

here's the fascinating

4:01

and somewhat disturbing thing. As

4:03

we've spread farther and farther,

4:07

some groups of humans also became

4:09

isolated those geographical

4:11

boundaries bedeviled us, impassable

4:14

mountains, shifting ice, dense

4:17

dangerous jungles, rising seas,

4:19

and treacherous currents to your point about

4:21

islands, right, all all played a role

4:23

in keeping some groups of human beings

4:25

hidden from the progress and the curses

4:28

of global society. And you know, we've

4:30

all, like you've heard these stories,

4:32

right we even without thinking of a specific

4:35

one. We've all heard the stories wherein

4:37

some intrepid explorer encounters a tribe

4:40

of people who had no knowledge

4:42

of the outside world. Right. I

4:46

remember thinking that these were relatively

4:50

I don't know, fictionalized things growing up,

4:52

like fair not I don't want to say fairy tales,

4:55

but fictional adventure stories. Yes.

4:58

There, They're depicted

5:00

in film and in um

5:03

books all over the place, various

5:06

fictional ones and nonfictional

5:08

encounters of this sort. And the I think

5:10

that line gets blurred a little

5:13

bit in our in our popular culture of

5:15

what what a real encounter looks like, in what

5:17

a u a

5:19

played up one looks like for the screen. Right,

5:22

That's a very important point in

5:24

the modern age. It seems like these

5:26

events and encounters, whether they were truthful,

5:29

whether they were fiction, or whether

5:31

they were a blend of the two, usually

5:34

to make someone from the West feel more important

5:36

about themselves or less like they

5:39

were colonizers or less like they

5:41

were colonizers. That's true regardless.

5:45

Nowadays, it seems like most of these

5:48

events are encounters are going to

5:50

be relegated to history books. In

5:53

short, everyone

5:56

has met everyone or is aware

5:58

of everyone, right, we all get

6:00

it. Everyone is at least aware

6:03

enough that there's an outside world. Like a tribe,

6:06

most most tribes of isolated

6:08

people are aware that there's an

6:10

outside world with some technology in it. Right.

6:13

And it is sadly true that there

6:15

are many countries

6:18

that people in other countries aren't very

6:20

much aware of, you know, like

6:23

you've seen, especially European

6:26

media gives people in the

6:28

US a real devil

6:31

of a time with this. And you can see numerous YouTube

6:33

compilations of Americans

6:36

being asked to point to a country on the map

6:39

on the world map and getting it cartoonishly

6:41

wrong. That's a little bit of a stereotype.

6:45

Well, I promised, people are I promised

6:47

the editors are cherry picking that for

6:49

all our non American listeners. We certainly

6:52

hope, so we certainly hope so.

6:55

And regardless of how hilarious those videos

6:57

might be. Matt your point, I would say,

7:00

absolutely correct. We are aware of

7:02

the other We are aware that it exists.

7:05

There will be a you know, the majority

7:07

of people who live in China will probably

7:09

never travel to the States,

7:12

and the majority of people who live in the States will probably

7:14

never travel to China. But

7:17

both are aware that the other

7:19

country exists and is a real thing. Thank

7:21

you television and Internet. Thank you television

7:24

and to add books. Yes, uh,

7:28

in a world though, where everything

7:30

is rapidly urbanizing,

7:33

right, I think it was what while

7:35

you and I were first working together,

7:38

the shift occurred and the majority of human

7:40

beings began to live in cities. Yes,

7:42

we've been working together for a long time, and

7:45

it sounds like around

7:47

that's when we we

7:49

went past market. Yeah,

7:51

by of

7:54

the world's population lived in an

7:56

urban area, and

7:59

that shift is pretty crazy, right, pretty

8:01

recent too. Yeah, it's

8:03

it's definitely um a condensing

8:06

of humanity into these places

8:08

that, for better or for worse, do

8:11

really well for various economies

8:14

and for populations,

8:16

but not so great in a lot of other ways.

8:19

You know, pollution, crime, you

8:21

know a lot of those things right,

8:24

right exactly, And in this in

8:26

this world where there are

8:28

increasingly fewer

8:31

isolated populations and a

8:33

larger number of densely

8:36

let's say, densely combined populations,

8:40

we can understand why

8:43

people would think there there are no

8:45

more uncontacted tribes. There

8:47

are. Many people say that's a myth because

8:51

so many anthropologists

8:53

of the past and days of yore wanted

8:55

to be the first outsider

8:57

to encounter some group. That probably

9:00

that has happened, right, But

9:02

a a hard definition of an

9:04

uncontacted tribe, as in someone who's

9:07

some group that has never seen nor,

9:09

as they say in Tennessee, heard tell of

9:12

any other group. The

9:14

odds of that still existing are

9:17

are preposterously low, right, yeah.

9:19

And I think a lot of that has to do with something

9:22

as simple as Google Maps, where

9:24

you can you can open it up and you can

9:26

see every island.

9:28

Because we have the satellite imagery, we know

9:30

that that island exists there, but

9:32

wherever it is as isolated as it is, that

9:35

island exists here in this program.

9:37

So obviously somebody's been there,

9:39

right, that's the assumption at least, or you

9:42

could go there. So why why

9:44

wouldn't have someone gone there already, right,

9:46

and then there's that related

9:48

point. Maybe

9:51

there are any uncontacted tribes,

9:53

but maybe the human experiment

9:55

has grown so large that there aren't even

9:58

any really isolated tribes

10:00

anymore. Yeah, right, that's the assumption.

10:02

That's a safe assumption. But the problem is that could

10:05

not be further from the truth. Today's

10:08

episode concerns a particular community

10:10

that you may not have heard of on

10:12

a tiny island off the coast

10:15

of India, one that is lost

10:18

to time again. It's called North

10:20

Sentinel Island. It's relatively

10:22

tiny. It's just seventy two square kilometers

10:25

that's square miles

10:28

um. And it's well that's before the two four

10:30

earthquake. Because the the landmass

10:33

changed slightly, they're expanded

10:36

and it's a part of the Andaman

10:39

Archipelago. This is a grouping of the

10:41

Endeman and Nicobar Islands. It's located

10:43

at the crux of the Bay of Bengal and

10:45

the Andaman Sea. Now, just

10:47

we're gonna give you some degrees here so you can find it

10:50

on your globe if you've got one handy. There

10:52

between six degrees and fourteen

10:54

degrees north latitude and ninety

10:56

two degrees and ninety four degrees

10:58

east longitude. Now

11:00

that's four hundred kilometers

11:03

from mainland India on one side, that's

11:05

like a hundred and seventy miles, and

11:07

then a thousand kilometers from Thailand,

11:10

and that is about six hundred

11:12

and twenty one miles, so it's

11:14

kind of in the center of those.

11:16

Basically, if you zoom out far enough on Google

11:19

on Google Maps, and you draw a line between

11:21

the center of in this case, I'm using

11:23

Sri Lanka because it's like the island at the

11:25

bottom of India there and to

11:27

the center of Thailand, this will

11:29

be located pretty close to the center of that

11:31

line. Just if you're looking at Google

11:34

Maps or something, and it's in these

11:37

these two sets of islands, the Andaman

11:39

and the Nicobar Islands. It's it's some of the most

11:42

remote spots on the entire planet.

11:44

Yes, some of the islands

11:47

around this area are referred

11:49

to in one of my absolute

11:52

favorite books in the world,

11:55

The Atlas of Remote Islands.

11:58

I highly recommend you check it

12:00

out if you are interested in exploration

12:02

and remote locations. It's

12:05

a great book. But enough about that book.

12:08

Uh, the islands just on their

12:10

own there are what nearly six hundred

12:12

and only nine are open

12:15

to foreign tourists, very

12:18

very rural locations in

12:20

in addition to being very remote. But

12:23

but they are open to tourism. Those nine,

12:25

those that those come into play in the rest

12:27

of our story. Yeah, they're very much open

12:29

to tourism. Uh, locals be

12:31

damned honestly, And you

12:34

might say, well, who owns this

12:37

guys, I'm I'm

12:39

pretty good at pointing to countries on the map.

12:42

And I've never heard of a country called the Andaman

12:44

and Nicobar Islands. No

12:47

worries trick question. There

12:49

is no country. It is a

12:52

territory of India

12:54

and it is controlled by India's

12:56

generally speakings composed these two islands.

12:59

And think about it in terms of

13:03

latitude, So any

13:05

of the islands located north

13:07

of ten degrees latitude are

13:10

known as Andaman Islands, while islands

13:12

located south of that latitude

13:14

are called Nicobar Islands. Enough,

13:17

that's pretty easy. Nominally, these

13:20

territories and the island

13:22

we're talking about today, North Sentinel Island,

13:25

belong in the south and a man

13:27

administrative district which

13:29

is again part of this Indian territory.

13:32

The nearby South Sentinel

13:34

Island is uninhabited. It

13:37

occasionally receives visitors,

13:40

mostly adventurous divers who were like,

13:43

Yeahlberg, let's go somewhere where no one

13:45

les, like Overbend. I'm

13:50

sure they don't sound like that, and I'm

13:53

sure they sound exactly well, people who people

13:55

who want to adventure. No one lives there.

13:57

And here's the thing. Though

14:00

the Government of India legally

14:02

possesses both North and South

14:04

Centinel Island and again all

14:06

of the and amens all of the Nicobar Islands.

14:09

They do not have any

14:11

installations, no

14:14

government, no scheduled route

14:16

of transportation to visit the area.

14:19

People can visit South Centinel

14:21

Island and often probably sneak

14:23

there just to dive for a day or something

14:26

like going without a lifeguard basically right,

14:29

But all the ships in the nearby

14:32

area and all the plains are banned from

14:34

approaching North

14:37

Sentinel Island through the

14:39

use of a three mile exclusion

14:42

zone. Because you see, unlike

14:45

South Centinel Island, North

14:47

Sentinel Island is inhabited.

14:51

But by who, you might ask,

14:54

Well, we'll tell you right after a quick word from

14:56

our sponsor. Here's

15:03

where it gets crazy. The

15:05

answer to your question, Matt,

15:08

they posed before the break is we don't

15:11

really know the residents

15:13

of North Centinel Island. The Centinel Ees

15:17

are one of the most mysterious populations

15:20

on the planet, and there aren't

15:22

many of them. Estimates range from

15:24

as few as fifty people to maybe

15:26

as many as four hundred. The

15:29

last census that the Indian government

15:31

conducted that touched upon that

15:33

area only found

15:36

fifteen people I think

15:38

three women and twelve men.

15:41

But yeah, that that's something

15:43

we're gonna see here as we get into the story of

15:46

the people that you find when you're searching

15:48

for people on North Centinel Island

15:51

generally aren't the all of the people

15:54

that are on the island, right because

15:56

you see when they conducted that most

15:58

recent census, the way they conducted it

16:01

was by taking a boat, by getting special

16:03

permission to go inside the inclusion

16:05

the exclusion zone, and then trying

16:08

to get close enough to see if there was anyone on

16:10

the shore, and then immediately high

16:12

tailing it doubt post haste. And there's

16:15

a reason for that. They are violently

16:17

opposed to outside contact

16:20

of any kind. This behavior

16:23

has been universally consistent

16:26

for thousands of years

16:29

they've resided on this island. This population

16:32

living in much the same manner as their

16:34

ancestors from millennia,

16:36

and from what we can guess, the

16:38

Sentinel East people practice traditional

16:41

hunting and gathering with no

16:45

I mean, I think it's a leap to say no knowledge

16:47

of agriculture but no practice of it.

16:49

Yeah, there there's no evidence of

16:52

agriculture that's been seen in a few times

16:54

that people have actually gotten close enough

16:56

to check it out. Um. Their diet

16:58

consists of mostly fruits,

17:01

plants, stuff that's found on the island, coconuts,

17:03

forest plants. Uh, sometimes

17:05

they will. They've been known to eat sea turtles,

17:07

fish, some small birds, and wild honey.

17:10

And some researchers compare the Sentinels

17:12

to the Gay tribe, which is another

17:15

tribe that's on the Enemonese Islands,

17:17

that they're indigenous peoples to one of the other islands.

17:20

And we should just say here that the Sentinel Leaves

17:22

that name is a name given to them.

17:25

If you were ever to speak with one

17:27

and could speak with someone of you

17:29

know, the North Sentinel Island, they

17:32

would not call themselves that right

17:34

exactly this,

17:37

This culture has several

17:39

barriers to communication, yes, and

17:42

we'll get to these, but they are

17:44

an excellent example of

17:47

the one of the closest

17:49

analogs that we have to

17:52

this population, at least we being

17:54

the part of the species that doesn't live on this

17:56

island, we who are forced to guess.

17:59

So, like the

18:02

Sentinels, they

18:04

were a hundred gatherers living out

18:06

an ancient tradition, ancient

18:09

set of subsistence

18:11

practices right that date

18:13

back, by the way to some

18:16

of the earliest human civilization

18:19

practices that we know of today.

18:22

So these are doing these people

18:24

are doing some of the first things

18:27

that people did. Still well,

18:30

the Sentinel Ease, we suspect yes,

18:34

yes, because unlike the Sentinel

18:36

Ease, the young gay were somewhat

18:38

assimilated to their detriment.

18:41

In nineteen o one, the population was

18:43

registered at six hundred

18:45

and seventy two. After

18:48

colonization, there were fewer

18:50

than a hundred left. Ultimately, like the

18:53

number kept going down in the fifties,

18:55

it was only a hundred and fifty or so, and

18:57

this was due to the brutal acts of

18:59

the Calling Nightser's also unanticipated

19:02

factors like exposure to non

19:04

native diseases, which is one of the biggest

19:07

problems right

19:09

right, right, It's one of the problems with When

19:11

Europeans came to the

19:14

North and South American continents, the

19:16

same things occurred for them. It wasn't a problem,

19:18

it was a right. Yeah,

19:20

well, I'm saying for the native populations

19:23

at the time it was it was a horrific thing.

19:25

And there's something else here that

19:30

on a personal level mystifies

19:33

and disturbs

19:35

me. And it does it.

19:38

It disturbs me because I can't

19:40

explain why it's happening, and I don't

19:43

understand, and I don't think

19:45

that there's any technology

19:47

that people would have had to do this on purpose.

19:50

There's something deeper at play. Well, anyway, I'm

19:52

too much preface here. Here's what's happening

19:55

today. The younger is still around,

19:57

but a major cause of the decline

19:59

in population is

20:02

both the changes in food habits

20:04

brought about by contact with the outside world.

20:07

But here's the scary thing. Nowadays

20:09

they're one of the least fertile and

20:12

most sterile communities on

20:14

the planet. About of

20:16

married couples or sterile on

20:18

Gay women rarely become pregnant before

20:20

the age of infant,

20:22

and child mortality is in the range

20:24

of Now we could

20:27

explain, we

20:29

we could explain infinite and child

20:31

mortality due to you

20:33

know, quality of life right for the family,

20:35

for the mother, for the kid, so on. But

20:39

the idea that an entire population

20:43

without you know, some clear environmental

20:45

cause just

20:47

starts to dwindle that way.

20:50

Yeah, I don't like that at all. It's

20:52

frightening. It's it's not it's

20:56

not something that I can explain. I would

20:58

welcome anybody to write to us and

21:01

let us know. You know, is there some epigenetic

21:04

factor at play. Did

21:06

the community decide not to have

21:08

children, or is there some kind of outside

21:11

force that's acting on them in some

21:13

way, celical exposure

21:15

of some sort that they're unaware of, like forced

21:17

sterilization, which many governments

21:19

have done, which would yeah,

21:23

which would be explicable at least that's a mundane

21:25

cause. That's less scary

21:27

than some sort of switch

21:30

turning, you know what I mean. So

21:35

also, the on Game have

21:38

been victims of sexual exploitation

21:41

and alcoholism,

21:44

forced labor, all

21:47

the all the terrible and expected

21:49

things that happen often to

21:52

these tribes. So there may be a lesson

21:54

for us to learn with the Sentinel

21:56

ease. Through the perspective

21:59

of the On Game, observers

22:01

have compared the Sentinelies

22:03

community to communities that

22:05

existed in the Stone Age. They make

22:08

weapons, they make tools. Uh,

22:10

they're pretty badass with bows and arrows.

22:13

It's like three something feet they

22:16

can get you with an arrow. Yeah, yeah,

22:19

four hundred I think. Uh. They do

22:21

not appear to make fire,

22:24

at least again from what we can observe. And

22:27

their language is unclassified,

22:30

meaning it's unintelligible even to tribal

22:33

communities from close by islands.

22:36

Like they brought an on gay person there to

22:39

attempt to speak with them, but they

22:41

either couldn't get close enough to understand

22:44

the shouting because of all

22:46

the arrows, or they

22:48

simply have been the Sentinelies

22:51

simply have been isolated for so

22:53

long again for thousands

22:56

of years, and their language has

22:58

become its own un intelligible

23:00

thing. Yeah, that's

23:03

that. That is incredible because

23:05

that certainly doesn't happen. That's

23:08

one of the least uh

23:11

regularly occurring things to have in a

23:13

language that is so

23:15

isolated. That's incredible.

23:18

Now. Prior to

23:20

to the European encroachment, well

23:23

that's what we're gonna call it. There, Um,

23:25

there were ancient traditions by the tribes

23:28

people who lived around North Centinel Island

23:30

that the people on North Centinel Island were

23:32

cannibals, the only gay they

23:34

They apparently were aware of North Centinel

23:37

Islands for some time, but the first European

23:39

report didn't actually occur until

23:41

seventeen seventy one, which

23:45

isn't that long ago, just before

23:47

the United States became a thing. That's

23:49

true, Matt, I didn't think of it in that perspective.

23:53

Yeah. This British surveyor named John

23:55

Ritchie passed the island

23:57

on a ship called the Diligent.

24:00

Uh. The Diligent was a hydrographic

24:02

survey vessel owned by

24:05

the East India Company. Paul,

24:07

can we get a spooky sound effect when we say

24:09

East India Company? Just booze?

24:12

Just put put some booze in there, perfect,

24:18

that's appropriate. Yeah.

24:20

So Richie made

24:22

one note where he essentially said he saw

24:25

a multitude of lights. We don't know if

24:27

this means fires, but

24:31

he saw it from a distance. He made a short

24:33

note about it. The boat continued on

24:35

and no one in the West would make

24:38

any sort of reference to this island for

24:40

another hundred years. It's

24:42

just the one guy was like, oh whoa look

24:44

at that that's a that's not water,

24:48

that's definitely an island. So

24:50

we fast forward to March eighteen

24:53

sixty seven. That's when Jeremiah Humphrey,

24:55

he's the officer in charge of the and Amonese,

24:59

he journeyed to North s Little Island on the trail

25:01

of some convicts who escaped from

25:03

this penal colony that was there called

25:05

Port Blair. And

25:08

Okay, so he he's approaching the island,

25:10

he's escorted by police and what

25:13

they're called Great and Amnese,

25:15

and these are tribespeople from

25:18

like again, kind of like what we were discussing before,

25:20

a different tribe, but I

25:23

guess similar enough to where perhaps there could

25:25

be communication. He

25:28

saw some ten

25:30

men on the beach, naked, long

25:32

haired, with bows and arrows, shooting

25:34

fish and

25:37

apparently the sentineliest spot of the boat,

25:40

and they hid, and the Great

25:42

and Amnees on board were visibly frightened

25:44

and warned Mphrey, the

25:47

leader here, that the islanders had a reputation

25:49

for cannibalism, and Humphrey

25:52

said, yep, I'm not going there. He

25:54

never actually landed, yeah, which was surprisingly

25:58

smart of him, right to listen to the

26:01

experts in the area. He did

26:03

have a police escort with him, so it

26:05

is fascinating that he didn't. But I guess

26:09

maybe he just wasn't he wasn't confident

26:11

enough in the people there with him. Sure, I don't

26:14

know. We'll also notice that

26:16

at this point, despite this reputation

26:20

I'm sure it's largely exaggerated

26:23

for cannibalism, the

26:25

Sentinel Ease are hiding,

26:28

their avoiding and evading right there,

26:30

not confronting. And then also

26:33

there's a note here they're

26:35

described as long haired by

26:38

m. Free But when

26:40

you see footage of the

26:42

Centinel Ease people today,

26:45

there are no long haired people. There's

26:47

just a little bit of footage, And you're right, so

26:50

interesting because it seems as though things

26:52

are changing. In that same year again,

26:55

eighteen sixty seven, UH, an

26:57

Indian merchant ship called the nineveh

26:59

was surrect on the reef surrounding the

27:01

shore, and their captain was a real

27:04

piece of work. So eighty six

27:06

passengers survived, twenty

27:08

crew members survived. They make

27:10

it. They crash on that reef surrounding

27:13

the island. These are also very

27:15

treacherous waters and boom

27:18

celebration time. UH. They

27:20

survived these what one and

27:23

six people survived. On the third

27:25

day, the native population, which had been

27:27

completely in hiding, attacks the

27:30

captain. His strategy

27:33

is to take the ship's lifeboat and

27:36

run away, yeah, to get picked up

27:38

by some other ship that's coming by the

27:40

passing brig And then a

27:42

Royal Navy ship came to

27:45

rescue the remaining survivors who

27:47

had held the natives off by for

27:49

several days by throwing stones and

27:51

brandishing sticks. And

27:54

again this is a story that gets around, so

27:57

nobody else goes to that island for another

27:59

third teen years, yes, and

28:01

then in January eight eight, an

28:04

armed British expedition manages

28:07

a successful landing on North Sentinel

28:10

Island. They're led by the officer in

28:12

charge of the Antonomese by this time,

28:15

uh twenty year old fellow

28:17

by the name of Maurice Vidal Portman.

28:21

They went through the island in

28:23

search of local people, and

28:25

they had again some of people

28:28

from the greater Antonomese population

28:30

guiding them. So

28:32

what did they find. Well, the first thing they came

28:35

upon were a network of pathways

28:37

where people had been traveling by foot. Um

28:40

there were several freshly abandoned villages

28:43

that they that they saw again

28:45

with with nobody around. They

28:48

kept surveying the island they found and it had fertile

28:50

soil, there were grows of tropical

28:52

hardwoods and this

28:54

this gentleman Portman didn't see

28:57

a single human being other than the people

28:59

that he brought to the island. So

29:02

was it a ghost island? Maybe,

29:04

but I don't think so. Eventually, after

29:07

several days of searching, the party

29:09

discovered just six Sentinel

29:12

Ease. It was an elderly couple and

29:14

they had four children with them. And you

29:17

know, as as they

29:19

tended to do, I guess in the colonial

29:22

path, they abducted

29:24

these six people and they took them with them.

29:28

Yeah, they took them, the parents

29:31

and the children. The father was by

29:33

far the oldest of the six. They

29:35

took them back onto the vessel with

29:37

them. But as soon as

29:40

they were leaving the island, probably

29:43

because they were exposed to new UH

29:45

diseases, the family

29:48

fell ill rapidly ill. The

29:50

parents died, and so in

29:53

a strange move, Portman

29:56

and co. Sent the four

29:58

surviving children back home with

30:00

presence the likes of which the Sentinel

30:03

East community had probably never seen before.

30:06

And he talked about them in

30:08

a really smug, condescending

30:10

way he said. You know, he didn't feel

30:12

particularly bad about it. He was

30:14

annoyed by what he considered to be

30:16

their mannerisms and idiotic

30:18

expressions. That that's his choice

30:21

of wording there. And they did send

30:23

four unaccompanied children back

30:26

to an island that, to their observation,

30:28

was uninhabited. Oh yeah, I

30:31

didn't even think about that part. Just

30:33

go lord of the flies kids, we'll see you later. Wow,

30:35

here's a here's a doll with

30:38

your presence. And Portman did

30:40

go on to visit the island several more times.

30:42

In August of eighteen eighty three.

30:45

Uh they In August of eighteen eighty

30:47

three, a volcanic explosion

30:50

was mistaken for the sounds

30:52

of gunshots and

30:54

possibly a distress signal, so

30:57

several search parties go out. Portman's

31:00

search vessel lands

31:03

on North Sentinel Island. The

31:06

native people hide. He doesn't

31:08

see anyone, most importantly doesn't see a ship

31:10

in distress. So they just leave more gifts

31:12

on the shore and they depart. And then

31:15

over the span of eight five

31:18

seven he visits a few more times,

31:21

and in his way, in

31:24

a very smug, condescending way, Matt he

31:27

grows fond of the natives, And

31:29

we have a quote when he was explaining

31:32

how is his chilly heart had

31:34

warmed to them. In many

31:36

ways, they closely resemble the

31:39

average lower class English

31:41

country school boy.

31:43

As you see, I've only ever seen them running

31:46

away except for those four children

31:48

and the two parents that I killed with

31:50

my diseases. So the

31:54

beginning of that quote is absolutely

31:56

true. But I think the whole thing really

31:58

captures the spirit of where is coming from.

32:00

Right, maybe a little more self aware than

32:03

he was at the time, but

32:05

then you know, there's a

32:07

relative period of calm because why would

32:09

you go so far out of your way to visit

32:11

this place? Yeah, there's there

32:14

doesn't seem to be any interaction that happens,

32:16

at least if you've read the stories of reports of

32:18

the previous interactions or lack of

32:20

so yeah, no, no reason. However, in

32:23

eighteen s three escaped

32:25

Indian convicts fled that Port Blair

32:27

that we mentioned before. They got on a makeshift

32:29

raft and they drifted about thirty miles

32:32

to North Sentinel Island. Here's

32:34

the deal. Two of the fugitives drowned in the reefs

32:36

that are surrounding the island again that we've

32:38

mentioned before. The one guy, the

32:41

one survivor, made it to the beach,

32:44

only to be killed by

32:47

the natives. By by the natives. Ostensibly

32:50

nobody probably saw this, I'm assuming,

32:53

but but that's what appeared to

32:55

have happened. A British party

32:57

later spotted and retrieved his body, and they

33:00

noticed that it was pierced with

33:02

with arrows and his throat was cut.

33:06

Yep, And

33:08

after this, North Centinal Island was left alone

33:10

for another almost hundred years.

33:13

But what happened after that, There's

33:15

more to the story, will continue

33:18

after a word from our sponsor. So

33:25

meanwhile, for the rest

33:28

of civilization that was not

33:30

part of the community on North Sentinel

33:32

Island, a bunch of stuff was

33:34

happening, you know what I mean. Amazing

33:37

inventions, new depths

33:39

of human depravity, wars,

33:42

peace, beautiful moments.

33:45

Some of the most amazing people in history are

33:47

born and forgotten. And the people on

33:50

this island have not only no

33:52

real idea about it, but they just

33:54

don't want to be forced to participate

33:57

in this whole human experiment. In

34:02

nearby India, in nine the

34:05

country finally gains independence

34:08

from British rule, and

34:10

with this it gained control of

34:13

the Andamans and the Nicobar Islands,

34:15

including North Sentinel Island.

34:19

So things are pretty hectic

34:21

when you become a newly independent country.

34:24

And they didn't really get to the concept

34:27

of North Sentinel Island or the mysterious

34:29

people living on it for about twenty

34:31

years and uh in nineteen

34:34

sixty seven, an Indian anthropologist

34:36

named Trilokanath Pondit was

34:39

summoned by the governor of the Andaman

34:41

Islands for a major

34:44

expedition to North

34:46

Sentinel Islands. Ponda was offered

34:48

the opportunity to become the first

34:50

anthropologists to land there, accompanied

34:53

by armed police, naval officers,

34:56

too large patrol boats and inflatable

34:59

rubber ding ease to get around

35:01

the reef without breaking up a ship and

35:04

getting trapped. Not so good against arrows

35:06

though not so great. Yeah,

35:08

not so great against arrows. Later

35:11

in life, pondits when

35:13

he's talking about why he agreed

35:15

to do this, he says, there was a feeling

35:18

that we were trying to establish friendly

35:20

contact, which would be considered

35:22

an achievement at the government level.

35:25

So on the first expedition, the Sentinel

35:27

Ease retreat into the jungle and

35:30

they disappear because they know this better

35:32

than any non native ever would. There's

35:34

no contact. So the party leaves gifts

35:37

of buckets, cloth, and

35:39

candy in the empty huts of the village. But

35:42

they also they

35:44

also steal some stuff. They called

35:46

it collecting, but they stole some stuff,

35:49

and they left blankets and things that could have

35:51

been tainted. As we found

35:53

with the American native populations,

35:55

something as simple as a blanket can hold

35:57

a lot of pathogens, can be a actor

36:00

for disease. Right, So what

36:02

what kind of stuff did they take? They took

36:04

bows, arrows, There was a basket,

36:07

and even the painted skull of a wild boar.

36:10

And they were like, this is ours. Enjoy

36:12

the things, the candy.

36:16

Uh Yeah, And then they

36:19

return another trip. On the

36:21

nine March, Ponda

36:24

and his party find themselves

36:26

trapped on the reef flats

36:29

between North Sentinel Island and

36:31

Constant Islet. Constance

36:33

Islet was just a little bit

36:35

away from the

36:39

actual island itself, and

36:41

that when we talked about how the island grew a little

36:44

bit larger after the

36:46

two thousand four earthquake

36:48

and Snami, the same way that the Grinch's

36:51

heart grew a little bit larger at the end of

36:53

the film spoilers. Now,

36:55

the islet is attached to the island,

36:57

but beforehand you could get pot

37:00

in between there, just to give the geography.

37:03

So they were certain that they

37:06

were going to be attacked.

37:08

This is it, thought Pandit and company,

37:12

So pendit or Pandit.

37:14

I want to be clear that we are not native speakers,

37:17

so may be mispronouncing this name. Uh.

37:19

They were certain that this was

37:22

going to spell the end and that they were

37:24

going to die in the pursuit of

37:26

this great anthropological experiment.

37:29

But something unexpected

37:32

occurred. So at

37:36

first they

37:38

see that the

37:41

they see that two of the natives who were just

37:43

sort of observing them have realized

37:47

that they're stuck, and

37:51

more people come out of they cover, more

37:53

men, more warriors, threatening

37:55

to shoot at them, you know, brandishing their

37:58

arrows. Uh. And so

38:00

they tried to appease them by

38:02

giving them fish that they had caught, but

38:06

that didn't work. More more

38:09

dudes were coming at them, getting closer

38:11

and closer to shoot uh.

38:13

And when

38:15

they got fish,

38:18

some of them started to calm

38:20

down, but other people weren't

38:23

having it, and

38:26

they were still hostile there. So they were still

38:28

taking the fish, but then just picking the bows back

38:31

up and getting ready to kill them. So

38:33

the guys were thinking, eventually, we're gonna

38:35

run out of fish, right. But then, at

38:38

this moment this is a quote from an

38:40

eyewitness account in the seventies, At

38:42

this moment, a strange thing happened. A woman

38:45

paired off with a warrior and sat on the sand

38:47

and a passionate embrace. This act

38:49

was being repeated by other women, each claiming

38:51

a warrior for herself, a sort of

38:53

community mating, as it were. Thus

38:56

did the militant group diminish. This continued

38:58

for quite some time, and in the tempo of

39:00

this frenzy dance of desire abated.

39:03

The couples retired into the shade of

39:05

the jungle. However, some warriors

39:07

were still on guard. We got close to the

39:09

shore and through some more fish, which were immediately

39:12

retrieved by a few youngsters. It was

39:14

well past noons, so we headed back

39:16

to the ship. So

39:18

they managed to survive, but they had

39:20

to watch something very weird, very

39:24

personal interesting. I

39:26

wonder what kind of because

39:28

it must be a show of force in some way.

39:31

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, we're not anthropologist,

39:34

man. Maybe it's just the time of day. That

39:36

was the thing that happened at that time.

39:39

We could we could just think about it

39:41

all day long. I

39:43

think it's more like, I

39:45

think there's gonna be power in there somewhere, right,

39:48

maybe a calming effect or something

39:50

I don't know. I don't know, maybe something

39:52

ritualistic. Who knows, who knows?

39:54

We would like to hear your theories as well.

39:57

Right to his conspiracy how Stuff Works dot

39:59

com. They're also unproven

40:01

murders or

40:03

at least missing person cases associated

40:06

with the islands. Oh yeah. In that same

40:08

year of nine seventy, there was a wreck

40:10

that was spotted on a coral reef right on the southeast

40:13

coast of the island, and after

40:15

people were looking at it to see what the heck is

40:17

going on here, it was concluded that the vessel had been

40:19

just sitting there for about seven or

40:21

eight months, and there was no sign of the

40:23

crew, no sign of the fate of the crew.

40:26

So who knows? That one's

40:28

just a mystery, and I don't think we'll ever

40:30

have a just a concrete

40:34

reason for why that happened. And

40:37

then of course, the big, the

40:39

big deal, right, the big tent. As

40:41

far as the encounters go, it's

40:46

we can tell you the story of the

40:50

encounter. That actually had video

40:52

footage, which you mentioned earlier, right, Matt,

40:54

Yeah, it's one of the only existing it

40:57

is really it's the only existing footage that I

40:59

have scene of the Sentinel Ease. It

41:02

was in the spring of nineteen four when

41:04

there was a visit by this team of anthropologists

41:07

and they were filming a documentary called Man

41:09

in Search of Man, and there was

41:11

a National Geographic photographer with them.

41:14

They're also armed police officers. They

41:16

actually wore padded armor

41:19

um that they had under these jackets,

41:21

and again who's to say what that

41:23

does against arrows. Hopefully

41:26

that would have been, you know, some kind of protection, but

41:28

who knows um.

41:31

And there is actual footage that you can see.

41:33

I believe that's the nineteen seventy four footage

41:35

ulsits from

41:37

earlier. It's the only one that I've seen, I

41:40

think. Then in September

41:42

nine, after

41:45

both confirmed and suspected deaths at

41:47

the hands of the Sentinel Ease, the Indian government

41:49

added this uh this zone.

41:51

It's a five kilometer three mile exclusion

41:54

zone around the island and it's under

41:56

the provisions of the Andaman and Nicobar

41:58

Protection of Aborigine tribes regulation.

42:01

Um, it's called a N P A

42:04

t R. Yes,

42:07

I love a good acronym. Right. We

42:09

should also add, you know, nobody died

42:12

in the nineteen seventy four incident, but I

42:14

got shot through the thigh. I think,

42:17

uh, the that was their reaction

42:20

to giving the gifts. So it's

42:22

interesting because before this exclusion

42:24

zone exists, and before it gets extended

42:26

even we

42:29

see this history of people trying to peacefully

42:31

hide, stay away from us outsiders.

42:35

And then at some point in

42:37

this occasional you

42:40

know, every every few decades, every century

42:42

or so, in this occasional badgery and from the

42:44

outside world, the sentinel East

42:47

stop putting up with

42:49

this. Yeah, who knows what internal

42:51

folklore they've they have now

42:53

for the people that come and visit them every few

42:55

decades. Yeah, there are there's Okay,

42:58

so there are a couple of Indie patients

43:00

that they might have some ancient myths similar

43:02

to those of the on gay But

43:06

it's just in the The

43:08

only way we know is that when

43:10

that two thousand and four disaster occurred,

43:13

they got to high ground, so

43:15

they knew two. They

43:17

knew that some sort of natural

43:20

disturbance was coming, and that may

43:22

be based on an oral

43:24

history about similar events

43:27

in the distant past shared

43:29

with the people would later become known

43:31

as the gay So that's possible.

43:34

But can you imagine, and we're

43:36

entirely speculating here, Matt, can you imagine

43:39

what oral histories may exist now

43:41

based on those four kids who returned, right?

43:45

I mean that sounds insane. You

43:47

know. They took

43:49

me, they killed my parents, they brought

43:51

me back with this these strange beings

43:54

on ships. We saw things

43:56

that looked like this that

43:58

we have no way of really scribing to

44:00

you, right, And these

44:03

deaths at the hands of

44:05

the Sentinel Ease residents

44:08

still occur. In two thousand

44:10

six, two men were illegally fishing

44:13

from mud crabs off the coast and North

44:15

Sentinel Island, and the Centinel Ease

44:18

killed them. An Indian Coast

44:20

Guard helicopter tried to go retrieve

44:22

the bodies, and it was warded off

44:25

by bows and arrows and

44:28

ambitious explorers. An anthropologist

44:30

attempting to make first contact may

44:33

have already violated

44:36

the prime directive in some ways.

44:39

They may have accelerated the age

44:41

of the the civilization and culture

44:44

on the island, and by age.

44:46

I don't mean just age in terms

44:49

of numbers, I mean the technological

44:51

age. They may have gone from the Stone Age

44:53

to something else, because we have to

44:55

remember these are people. They may be living

44:57

differently than many other people in planet,

45:00

but that doesn't make them not human.

45:03

They're still really smart because

45:06

human beings are for the most part, insanely

45:09

super villain level brilliant in comparison

45:11

to other living things. And

45:14

that means that they took salvaged metal and

45:17

they made weapons, they made ornaments,

45:19

they made jewelry. But

45:21

as we as we get to the

45:25

end of today's show, we know

45:27

that the the they

45:30

in today's episode is the

45:32

sentinel ease people, and

45:35

the stuff they don't want you to

45:37

know is anything about

45:39

how they live, or

45:41

what their lives are like, or what

45:44

they think about you, specifically

45:47

you, specifically Matt, Paul,

45:49

Noel and I as well. They want

45:51

to be left alone. And is

45:54

that so bad? What should happen to

45:56

the residents of the island. We're asking

45:58

you. Should they be left to own as

46:00

is apparently their desire, or is

46:02

it too late already? Will they need

46:05

assistance as local wildlife

46:07

dies out? As oceanic

46:10

biodiversity decreases, you

46:13

know, and like, like, it's all well and

46:15

good to say that we

46:17

should leave this community alone.

46:19

But some people would argue, well,

46:22

what if environmental

46:24

catastrophes make their way of life unsustainable?

46:27

Does the human species have a responsibility

46:29

to help the people on this island? Yeah,

46:32

I think they're too. I I see

46:35

these sides and both of these arguments.

46:37

Personally, I'm more on the leave them alone side.

46:40

Every everything I have ever witnessed

46:43

about this, this sort of situation

46:46

tells me that it's it's okay

46:49

to not want to participate. You shouldn't

46:51

force people to do stuff.

46:54

I think there

46:56

there is a point to be made about perhaps

46:58

they are just protecting their

47:01

own and their territory

47:03

rather than really not wanting to be contacted.

47:06

You know. Yeah, the Indian government has

47:08

never prosecuted them for any

47:10

of these murders, by the way, and they are murders,

47:13

or you could call them cultural self defense. But

47:16

when we asked this question, we also

47:18

have to ask I

47:21

don't want to tilt the scales too much,

47:24

but we also have to ask ourselves what

47:26

happened to the other indigenous

47:29

peoples of these island

47:31

groups when outsiders

47:34

contacted them. Well, we have one example

47:37

that's not the same in

47:39

in really many respects,

47:41

but we can see the effects that civilization

47:44

has had on them. They're called the Jarwah.

47:46

There were a native tribe and native and

47:48

Iman tribe, and there

47:50

is a They live on one island

47:53

where there is a road that goes through

47:56

their reservation essentially on this

47:58

island. They're kind of in the center of the island,

48:00

and then there's, uh, there're like some tourist

48:02

areas and other Indian locals who live

48:05

on the outer side at the outer rim of

48:07

the island, and there's some civilization out there.

48:09

And this road that goes right through their reservation

48:13

was in use for a while, but then

48:15

it was decided by the Indian government

48:17

that hey, we should not use this road

48:19

anymore. We're we're interrupting

48:21

the life of this tribe, this relatively

48:24

uncontacted tribe, because I think was

48:26

the first time that they were officially contacted

48:29

um. But then

48:32

tourism kind of became the thing where

48:35

this road began.

48:38

They they these companies started taking

48:40

human safaris down this road

48:43

where they would get in you know, vans

48:45

at large jeeps and pay

48:48

people money to take these trips to perhaps

48:50

get a chance look at some of these tribes

48:52

people just living their lives and

48:55

looking at them as though they're in a zoo

48:57

or something. Um, it's a pretty

48:59

horror find thought, especially

49:04

just it's it feels very icky first

49:06

of all. But then the second thing is that you are disturbing

49:09

these people in their way of life. Every

49:11

time a single vehicle goes by

49:13

on this road that they make an encounter. Um,

49:17

it's it's pretty crazy. You can also just grab

49:19

a taxi by the way and go through there.

49:21

You do have to get through a military checkpoint and

49:24

you are not allowed, at least according to the

49:26

authorities there and all the signs they put up. You're not allowed

49:28

to take any pictures, photography

49:30

or video of the Jarwi tribe, which

49:33

is I guess a good thing, But how

49:36

do you police you know that

49:38

many people and that many vehicles going

49:40

through at the time. It's

49:42

just not great. And the other thing are destination

49:45

resorts which are all

49:47

around these islands, specifically those

49:49

nine islands that are inhabited um

49:53

or I guess eight. But um

49:56

there are resorts and there's

49:58

a tradition for local peoples who live

50:00

on these islands people's

50:02

of I guess Western civilization who

50:05

burn their refuse. That's what they do. They've

50:07

got, you know, they're small residences

50:10

and they burn their trash. These larger resorts,

50:12

though, make so much trash that there's no

50:14

way to really burn it with

50:17

without creating massive issues. So

50:19

then it becomes a different massive issue

50:22

where it's just a giant pile of trash.

50:24

And there are multiple resorts around this

50:27

these islands. So anyway, that's just

50:29

the one thing to think about. If North Centinel

50:31

Island ever becomes contacted

50:34

to the point where there are buildings

50:36

and businesses being put up

50:38

on the island, we can kind

50:40

of see what might happen to the tribe,

50:43

right, Yeah, you can also in addition

50:46

to the point you've made met you can you

50:48

can also check out videos

50:50

of some of these native

50:53

people being taunted

50:56

to dance for food

50:59

and uh and similar things like that.

51:02

So the question is, now that

51:05

we know the stuff they don't want

51:07

you to know on the Sentinel east side,

51:09

what is humanity

51:11

to do? Is the government of

51:13

India correct to create

51:15

this exclusion zone and

51:18

to force all traffic

51:21

to keep this island essentially

51:24

lost in time? Or

51:28

should something else be done. If

51:30

so, what, and if so how?

51:34

We we don't have the answers. I

51:36

mean, clearly, Matt, I'm

51:38

gonna go out on a limb and say you're also on the side

51:41

of leave them alone. Yes, but

51:43

I'm aware of the inevitability

51:45

that they will I mean, they will be

51:47

engulfed by civilization at

51:49

some point. Time is

51:52

very long and humanity

51:54

expands ever so well,

51:56

let me ask you this, what if what if

51:59

someone and in the population

52:02

decides to build several boats, and

52:04

what if they under their own power going

52:07

to the outside world. But then, you

52:09

know what I mean, it's different

52:11

because that goes both ways, this human

52:14

need for expansion. So

52:16

at this point we don't know the answers.

52:18

No one does. We wanted

52:21

to introduce you to one of

52:23

the most secret places in

52:25

the world, right one

52:27

of the one of the places where you

52:30

most likely will never get to travel

52:33

and if you do get a chance, just

52:35

and probably

52:38

you shouldn't write I'm

52:40

I'm having a tough time saying

52:42

that. I know it's the right thing to do, Matt, I know

52:44

you're right, but again,

52:46

we want to hear from you. Thank you so much for tuning

52:49

into the show. Friends and neighbors,

52:51

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52:53

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