John Chau considered himself to be an adventurer.
The 27-year-old had traveled around the world and prided himself on going off the beaten track.
“I love to explore,” he told the Outbound Collective four years ago.
“So whether it’s trekking through dense old growth forests near the Chilliwack River [on the US-Canada border], finding a rumoured waterfall in the jungles of the Andamans, or just wandering around a city to get a feel for the vibes, I’m an explorer at heart.”
The Alabaman man was fascinated by a remote tribe who have lived in isolation for 60,000 years on North Sentinel Island, one of India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands.
According to the BBC, the Sentinelese tribal people have had no contact with other humans and have no immunity to common illnesses such as the flu and measles.
It’s believed there are only 50-150 members of the remote tribe left and they are considered to be endangered. They fiercely protect their island from outsiders.
After the 2004 tsunami, a member of the tribe was filmed firing arrows at a helicopter assessing the extent of the damage to the area. In 2006, the tribe killed two Indian fisherman who were illegally poaching turtles and lobsters off the shore of the island.
Contact with the endangered Andaman tribes is illegal and tourists are forbidden from traveling to the remote island.
On November 16, 2018, Chau paid seven Indian fisherman to illegally ferry him to the island. They took the young traveler close enough to the island for him to canoe the rest of the way.
