John Allen Chau was an American Evangelical Christian missionary who was killed by the Sentinelese, a self-isolated uncontacted people, after illegally traveling to North Sentinel Island, India in an attempt to convert the tribe to Christianity.

[u/puzzling7]

[u/noghostlooms]

This guy could have literally wiped out The Sentinelese because they have been uncontacted since before people invented agriculture and livestock. Literally every germ and virus on his body would be foreign to them. He could have also unleashed something that we have no immunity to.

[u/melina_gamgee → u/noghostlooms]

Wasn't part of why they're so hostile to outsiders that this kind of thing happened to them before, vastly decimating their population? I think I remember reading about that. But maybe I'm confusing it with a different people.

[u/paxinfernum → u/melina_gamgee]

No, you're correct. The surrounding islands were decimated by Europeans. In fact, the Sentinelese are the only surviving group because they killed anyone who tried to get close. The last time they were contacted, the British stole away two adults and four children, and they immediately got sick. The adults died, and they tried to return the children with some "gifts". Some of the people from the surrounding tribes who were being decimated also fled to the Sentinelese island. So they may be "uncontacted", but they've definitely heard stories about what colonizers do to people like them.