February 2011

Isolated Tribes Should Stay That Way

When you think of isolated indigenous tribes left in the world, you probably think of very small numbers of people; I know I certainly used to. I thought, wow, there can’t be very many people on Earth who still live in a tribal environment, right? I mean, it’s 2011!

Yeah, that just shows how ignorant I am. It turns out that there are thousands of isolated tribes—also known as uncontacted or lost tribes—all across the world. They’re everywhere, from Vietnam to New Guinea, Mexico to Bolivia. None are known of in the United States, of course.