American Tourist Killed by Remote Tribe in India

The Sentinelese tribe is extremely isolated from human contact and the Indian Navy enforces a buffer zone to keep people away, but Chau was determined to visit them and convert them to Christianity, The New York Times reports.

Chau was so keen on being one of the few outsiders to interact with the Sentinelese people that he hired a fishing boat and took a kayak and a Bible to the island.

The first time he attempted to reach the shores, he was shot at with arrows and retreated. Chau tried to reach the island several times in the span of three days, offering gifts such as a soccer ball, scissors, and fishing line to the tribesmen. But the fishermen who took Chau to North Sentinel explained to the police that they had later seen his body being dragged on the beach by the Sentinelese people.

According to The New York Times, the people who helped take Chau to North Sentinel “have been arrested and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and with violating rules protecting aboriginal tribes.”

H/T: The New York Times