Indigenous Tribes from Around the World

Mike Rothschild
Updated September 24, 2021 220.3K views

Indigenous peoples of the world still live in some of the most isolated areas anywhere on earth, resisting contact with the outside world and staying free of societal influences. Uncontacted people live in a precarious balance, striving to maintain their own freedom while being threatened by an outside world they choose to avoid. Logging, ranching, oil exploration, gold mining, and tourism are all threats to indigenous tribes - meaning fewer of these tribes are able to survive.

When the outside world has made contact with these tribes, the results are often disastrous. Violent conflict with illegal loggers and gold prospectors has led to dozens of deaths, and since the tribespeople have no natural immunity, when they do make contact with settled societies, they are extremely vulnerable to common illnesses. There have also been incidents of tourists and photographers attack or shot with arrows by tribes who don't understand why they're being bothered. These tribes live in an increasingly dangerous position.

Here is a list of some of the most fascinating uncontacted peoples and interesting indigenous tribes still out there, and what we know about them at this point.
  • Sentinelese

    Living on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Sentinelese people are likely the most isolated tribe on the planet. They're thought to be descended from the first human beings to come out of Africa 60,000 years ago. They're extremely hostile to outsiders, sending aid workers and documentarians away with volleys of arrows. But they're also hearty people, able to make metal weapons and tools, and are in excellent health.

    Officials in India worried that the Sentinelese had been wiped out by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but the tribe survived and refused all offers of help.

  • Awรก-Guajรก

    The Awá-Guajá are an endangered indigenous group of people currently living in the eastern section of the Amazon in Brazil. Of an estimated 350 members of the tribe, around 100 have had absolutely no contact with the outside world. Due to their hunter-gatherer lifestyle, skirmishes with loggers, and encroachment by cattle companies, they've been called "Earth's most threatened tribe." The group has viciously fought with loggers, who retaliated by killing a tribe child.

  • Jarawa

    The Jarawa are another isolated people living on India's Andaman Islands. They had a 200 year history of isolation, despite encroachment by settlers and builders. After a large road was built near their settlement, they began to make contact with settled people, formally visiting other settlements in 1997. They were immediately hit by a measles outbreak, showing the danger inherent to isolation.

    Contacting, taking pictures with, or speaking with Jarawa people is now illegal, but numerous sightseeing trips do it anyway. There are probably about 400 Jarawa total.
  • Yana

    In 1911, a 50-year-old man emerged from the trees near Oroville, CA. He was discovered to be the last of the Yana people of California, the last Native American tribe surviving into modern times. He had lived completely outside of European or American culture, and as per tribal custom, he refused to give his name to an enemy. He was soon named "Ishi," the Yana word for "man."

    Ishi taught researchers an enormous amount about his culture, and showed his doctor how to make arrows and hunt in the Yana way. But less than five years later, Ishi, who had no natural immunity, died of TB.

  • Surma

    The three tribes that make up the Surma live in an ultra-remote part of southwestern Ethiopia and South Sudan. The word "Surma" is used as a catch-all for all three tribes, the Suri, Mursi, and Me'en. The tribes have a complex agricultural and pastoral culture, as well as a number of unique cultural concepts. Among the most prominent are the insertion of large discs into the bottom lips of women, skin scarring, and stick fighting.

    They were known to Westerners for decades, but first made contact with a group of Russian doctors in the '80s. Since then, they've been able to get firearms because of the Sudanese Civil War, and have often been pulled into the conflict.

  • Ruc

    The hunter-gatherer Ruc tribe was first discovered by North Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam War, after a large bombing raid brought them out of the jungle. They still live in caves in the eastern Quang Binh province, using a complex system of tunnels that spans some 60,000 meters throughout 17 separate areas. Many chambers in the system are unexplored even today, with locations only known by tribe elders.

    Since their discovery, the Vietnamese government has made many attempts to relocate them, and the two groups have a mutual animosity.
  • The Pintupi Nine

    In 1984 in Western Australia, an unknown group of Aborigines, two co-wives and seven children, emerged to find lost relatives after one of the husbands had died from eating spoiled canned goods. They made contact, but fled almost instantly.

    The Pintupi Nine, as they were later called, were tracked down by speakers of their own language and told that there existed a place where water flowed from pipes, and where there was a general surplus of food. While most of the group decided to stay in the modern town, one member, Yari Yari, returned to the Gibson Desert, where he remains today. Several of the others have become prominent artists.
  • New Guinea Tribes

    Because of its remote location, thick forests, and mountains, much of the island of New Guinea is still unexplored. While the existence of numerous tribes is known about, and most have at least had some contact with outsiders, they remain on the island and out of the reach of modern technology.

    It's thought that there are around 40 tribes in West Papua, New Guinea, and many are hostile to outsiders - likely killing and eating Rockefeller heir Michael Rockefeller in 1961. A BBC film crew attempted to make contact with at least one tribe in 2007, but the encounter might have been staged.
  • The Last Tribesman

    Somewhere deep in the Amazon jungle is the last survivor of an uncontacted tribe. His name is unknown, as is what he looks like or even what tribe he was from. In the late '90s, loggers in the area began talking about a mysterious tribesman they had encountered, and the Brazilian government attempted to find him. After numerous expeditions that ended either in frustration or arguments (one where the man shot a government official in the chest with an arrow) they finally declared a 30 mile wide part of the forest off limits to logging, allowing the man to live out his life in peace.
  • Mashco Piro

    A previously uncontacted tribe in Peru, the Mashco Piro began emerging in 2015, making contact with tourists, local officials, and missionaries. They're the descendants of tribesmen who were killed in the late 1890s and retreated into the jungle, where they stayed for over 100 years. They had isolated contacts with researchers and tourists for a while, and appear to have killed a photographer who was trying to take their picture, but eventually needed to emerge for food and tools when logging threatened their habitat.
  • Wapishana

    An isolated tribe living on the edge of rain forests in Guyana and Brazil, the Wapishana have about 7,000 members total. They are extremely distrustful of outsiders, and for a long time mingled only with other members of their tribe, crossing the border between the two countries without incident. They farm, hunt, and fish, while maintaining only nominal trade relationships with the settled towns near them.

    The Brazilian government attempted to organize the tribes into villages, but the effort failed. About half the tribe is now integrated into society, and the rest lives on their own.
  • Yanomami

    About 35,000 Yanomami tribesmen live in the rain forest on the border between Brazil and Venezuela. They live in demarcated villages, and while contact has been made, the groups live mostly in isolation. The few encounters between Yanomani and Brazilian authorities have been violent, and the group's population was drastically cut down by gold miners intruding into their territory and bringing disease with them.

    A well-known incident called the Haximu Massacre involved about a dozen Yanomani killed gruesomely. The group has a reputation for violence, both within the tribe and with outsiders.
  • Ayoreo

    About 5,500 Ayoreo live on the border between Paraguay and Bolivia. While most have made contact with local authorities, there are still several hundred who are totally unknown, living in six to seven groups today. They are the only extant uncontacted tribes in South America not living in the Amazon. Three groups are in the Northern region of the Gran Chaco on the border of Bolivia and Paraguay in the areas of Médanos del Chaco National Park. The other three to four groups are in the Southern region of the territory. Their isolation is threatened by logging, oil expeditions, cattle ranching, and tourism.

  • Uncontacted Brazilian Tribes

    The rural state of Acre in Brazil contains at least four uncontacted tribes, totaling about 600 people. A small group made contact, stealing crops and tools, and frightening locals. The tribes are protected by law, but still have to deal with illegal ranching, cattle grazing, and oil exploration. The Brazilian government restricts contact with the tribes to protect them from disease, as many uncontacted tribesmen who emerge quickly get sick.

  • Jujurei

    The Jururei are a tiny uncontacted Indian tribe numbering only eight to 10 people, who live in the Parque Nacional Pakaas Novas in Rondônia State, Brazil. In 2005 their land was invaded by loggers who tried to wipe them out. It is not known how many of the tribespeople were killed in the conflict that followed. When Brazilian officials visited their only village, it was abandoned and huts were destroyed - and the fate of the tribespeople is unknown.
  • Carabayo

    The Carabayo are an uncontacted people of Colombia living in at least three long houses in Río Puré National Park in the southeastern corner of the country. They share the protected National Park with several contacted tribes.

    In the last 400 years, Carabayo people have had intermittent contact with outsiders, including violent attacks by slave traders and rubber extractors, resulting in their retreat from outside groups and increased isolation. In 2011, the Colombian government extended protections to people who chose to remain isolated.

  • Taromenane

    This indigenous tribe lives in Yasuni National Park at the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin. It's believed that there are between 150 and 300 Taromenane people who still maintain a nomadic lifestyle on this land. Recently, intimidation from illegal loggers and oil developers has threatened their existence. Together with a smaller neighboring tribe called the Tageri, they make up the last uncontacted people in Ecuador.

  • Korubo

    Korubo is the name given to a tribe of indigenous people living isolated in the lower Javari Valley of the Amazon Basin. They've had some violent contacts with the surrounding communities but are generally considered to be uncontacted.

    There are around 150 Korubo people living in this small area, although a tribal woman named Maya apparently left the group and created a sub-group that lives separately, and has about 23 members. The Korubo have fought violently with this subgroup, and killed several illegal loggers.