• From groups of natives living just outside city limits to tribes discovered by accident
wandering the forest, we count 15 small civilisations untouched by modern society
15 - The Yahi Group • This is part of a larger group known as
the Yana people, a tribe of Native Americans indigenous to Northern California and the
Sierra Navada Mountains • In the 1700s, their numbers exceeded 1500,
but when the Gold Rush took place, miners and ranchers stormed their location and slaughtered
a huge amount of them - simply for defending their homeland
• A man named Ishi was the last surviving members of this group - since his custom is
that he would be introduced to a friend by his family, and his family were all dead,
he would never reveal his true name and instead the word for man "Ishi" became his name
• He taught people how to make professional arrowheads and bows before his death in 1916
• Today, certain members of the Yana people still survive, but none of the Yahi
14 - Vietnamese Ruc • It was during the Vietnam War, when bombs
fell left and right on presumably-uncivilised regions that it scared locals natives so much
that they finally stormed out of their jungle to the amazement of Vietnam soldiers
• Because the jungle were so heavily damaged, the Ruc tribe had no choice except to join
modern civilisation rather than go back to the smouldering ruin that was their home
• It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though - their tribe values clashed with government
ideals, and hatred from both parties formed 13 - Awá-Guajá People
• These guys are an endangered indigenous group living in the eastern Amazon forests
of Brazil • There only exists around 300 currently,
with less than a hundred totally isolated from the outside world - but the problem is
loggers continually encroach on their land, and the Brazilian government were slow to
block off the area so that they'd survive, so most of their numbers were massacred including
an 8 year old girl in 2011, who happened to be inside a protected area when loggers destroyed
their camp • Theirs has been voted by Survival International
as "earth's most threatened tribe" 12 - Batak Tribe
• A group of people generally thought to be the first inhabitants of the Philippines
were once a large, prosperous people - but today, disease brought by outsiders kill a
lot of their community and government laws forbid traditional ways of farming
• Once Survival International heard about this, they launched a campaign to give back
their rights and land, to showcase what effect their laws and regulations have on the Batak
• But today, we see less than 300 members, and since they tend not to marry other Batak
members but occasionally those from another tribe, their bloodline has diluted to a point
where some contest their people barely exist as a distinct entity
11 - The Pintupi • Western Australia, a group of nine hunter-gatherer
desert-dwelling people who survived without society until 1984 - they made contact with
the relatives near Kiwirrkurra who informed them about a strange place where food was
plentiful and water came out of pipes • They were intrigued, but one member Yari
Yari returned to the desert, whereas the others would settle in Kiwirrkurra, and a few even
became pseudo-celebrities for their artistic abilities
10 - Jackson Whites • The 1700s, the final hours in Europe's
colonisation of North America's East Coast when all tribe people from the Atlantic to
the Mississippi were documented and catalogued • Then, New York in 1790, an unheard of
tribe of Native Americans waltzed out of the forest like they hadn't even existed before
that point • Wars had raged, wars against natives and
yet the Jacksons had avoided it all 9 - The Akuntsu
• This is an indigenous tribe from Rodonia, Brazil, and like the Awas they're facing extinction
• They're a group of hunter-gatherers that supplement their diet with swidden agriculture,
but a group of ranchers found their camp and massacred their people, then covered up the
remains with bulldozers to hide the evidence - because otherwise the land would be closed
as an indigenous reserve and unavailable for logging or ranching
• Only 5 members survive today, and it's generally believed their people will not survive
with so small a number 8 - The Jarawa
• These guys live on the Andamanese Islands, and like with a lot of these other tribes
their numbers barely exceed 300 • For a long time they resisted contact
with humans until 1997 when they visited a local community - then immediately got sick
with the measles • Sadly, the Jarawas are today a tourist
attraction where hundreds flock to view and photograph their tribe as they go about their
daily lives - even though government regulations prohibit this
7 - The Sentinelese • These are distant cousins of the Jarawans,
a culture shrouded in mystery on a small island off India, located in the Bay of Bengal and
the Andaman Islands • Every time people have tried to get close
to this island, the Sentinelese send back hundreds of arrows and spears, so it's difficult
to gauge their numbers though we've made several attempts to contact them
• It's rumoured their people have lived there for many tens of thousands of years,
directly descended from the first humans to leave Africa
6 - The Mayoruna People • These are an indigenous tribe of the Peruvian
and Brazilian Amazon, one whose ancestral lands are currently threatened by logging
and poaching from modern society • During the 1900s, they were deeply untrusting
of the Peruvian government since warfare saw their villages hit by napalm and the link,
but in 1969 they accepted missionaries into their community
• According to the missionaries, the Mayoruna people see the physical and spiritual world
as entities present throughout the world, ones that assist in technical aspects of hunting
game 5 - The Nukak-Mahu People
• This is a smaller tribe that resides in the Amazonian forest, their population exceeding
400 individuals • They first made regular contact with society
in 1988, and since then over half of them have died - so now they don't, and I can't
blame them • They live in small pockets of 30 persons
or less as nomads that wander to and fro, using blowdarts to kill prey using poison
from 5 different types of plant 4 - Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau
• These guys come from Brazil, living in the state of Rondonia with six villages along
with a few other sub-group tribes, some that haven't even been contacted yet
• In 1981, they came into contact with the National Indian Foundation, but disease and
violent attacks pulverised their numbers, and ten years later the largest known tin
deposit was found smack bang in their land • The Brazilian Government came in at the
last second to prevent loggers and miners from invading their territory, and the non-government
organisation Kaninde fights outsiders trying to attack the tribe
• Currently, their numbers barely exceed 100
3 - The Zoe’é • A small tribe of 250 members in the north
of Brazil, they get along growing plants and the occasional hunt - but are otherwise peaceful
• Their relationships are polygamous, meaning each can marry a few people, not just one
- and they're also a community without hierarchy, so that they're all equal
• In 1987 they first contacted outsiders, but death swept through their village to authorities
stopped anyone else from encountering their members, to protect them
2 - Peruvian Tribe Discovered By Accident • It was a tourist group tromping around
through the jungles of Peru that found a curious mish-mash of natives nobody have ever encountered
before, and at the time they tried communicating in a variety of languages but the natives
wouldn't respond • Anthropologists inspected the video footage
brought back and realised this tribe was one of the few in the area they hadn't found before
1 - Ayoreo-Totobiegosode • A rough translation of these words comes
to "people of the place of the wild pigs" a tribe in a harsh forest area known as Chaco
• According to reports, they'd contacted society in the 1940s, but after some of their
numbers were forced to evacuate the forest, they started their nomadic life deep in the
jungle