What they didn’t know was that John had prepared for years to reach the Sentinelese with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Many news reports and opinion pieces implied that John had been foolish to contact a people group known to be violent toward outsiders. He intended to remain invisible to the world whether he lived or died, caring only to be seen by the one who told His followers to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”īut instead, in November 2018, news outlets around the world were running the story of a 26-year-old American man who had been killed trying to make contact with a remote tribe on North Sentinel Island, a tiny speck in the Bay of Bengal between India and Southeast Asia. In an Instagram post, his family said it was mourning him as a "beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend to us." The family also said it forgave his killers.If all had gone according to John Allen Chau’s plan, we would never have known his name. Before that he had lived in southwestern Washington state and went to Vancouver Christian High School. The Andamans once had other similar groups, long-ago migrants from Africa and Southeast Asia who settled in the island chain, but their numbers have dwindled dramatically over the past century as a result of disease, intermarriage and migration.įive fishermen, a friend of Chau's and a local tourist guide have been arrested for helping Chau.Ĭhau, whose friends described him as a fervent Christian, attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Scholars know almost nothing about the island, from how many people live there to what language they speak. "At the same time, we consider it a real honor to have worked with him, to have been a part of his journey." "We are just in grief and in shock about his death," she said.
She doesn't know yet whether it will be possible to recover Chau's body. She said she couldn't comment on why Chau arrived there the way he did, but that he carefully planned it.Īll Nations contacted the U.S. Ho said the Indian government lifted restrictions on traveling to the island in August. No I don't think so."Ĭhau paid fishermen to take him near North Sentinel, using a kayak to paddle to shore and bringing gifts, including a football and fish. "Would it be wiser to leave and let someone else to continue. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE," wrote Chau, who appeared to want to bring Christianity to the islanders. His notes, which were reported Thursday in Indian newspapers and confirmed by police, make clear he knew he might be killed. Police say Chau knew that the Sentinelese resisted all contact by outsiders, firing arrows and spears at passing helicopters and killing fishermen who drift onto their shore. "His high-pitched voice still lingers in my head." "Why did a little kid have to shoot me today?" he wrote in his notes, which he left with the fishermen before swimming back the next morning. The arrow, he wrote, hit a Bible he was carrying. When a young boy tried to hit him with an arrow on his first day on the island, Chau swam back to the fishing boat he had arranged to wait for him offshore. "He wanted to have a long-term relationship, and if possible, to be accepted by them and live amongst them," she said. All Nations, a Kansas City, Missouri-based organization, helped train Chau, discussed the risks with him and sent him on the mission, to support him in his "life's calling," she added. An aerial view of North Sentinel Island, in India's southeastern Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nov 14, 2005.Ĭhau went to "share the love of Jesus," said Mary Ho, international executive leader of All Nations. Indian ships monitor the waters around the island, trying to ensure that outsiders do not go near the Sentinelese, who have repeatedly made clear they want to be left alone. The only contacts, occasional "gift giving" visits in which bananas and coconuts were passed by small teams of officials and scholars who remained in the surf, were years ago. Officials typically don't travel to the North Sentinel area, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago.
Pathak said investigators have asked experts to give them "the nuances of the group's conduct and behavior, particularly in this kind of violent behavior," before they attempt to recover the body. The fishermen who had taken Chau to the shore saw the tribespeople dragging and burying his body on the morning of Nov. The officials took two of the seven people arrested for helping Chau get close to the island in an effort to determine his route and the circumstances of his death.
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