Uncontacted peoples
Uncontacted peoples are groups of Indigenous peoples living without sustained contact with neighbouring communities and the world community. Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation are groups who decide to remain uncontacted. Legal protections make estimating the total number of uncontacted peoples challenging, but estimates from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the UN and the nonprofit group Survival International point to between 100 and 200 uncontacted tribes numbering up to 10,000 individuals total. In 2025, Survival International published the first comprehensive report on uncontacted peoples worldwide. It found robust evidence of 196 uncontacted peoples living in ten countries across South America, Asia and the Pacific. A majority of uncontacted peoples live in South America, particularly Brazil, where Survival has found evidence of 124 groups.
Knowledge of uncontacted peoples comes mostly from encounters with neighbouring Indigenous communities and aerial footage.
Definition
Uncontacted peoples generally refers to Indigenous peoples who have remained largely isolated to the present day, maintained their traditional lifestyles, and functioned mostly independently from any political or governmental entities. Uncontacted specifically refers to a lack of sustained contact with the majority of non-Indigenous society at present as most Indigenous groups have had some form of contact with other peoples; European exploration and colonization during the early modern period brought Indigenous peoples worldwide into contact with colonial settlers and explorers.Survival International's 2025 report defines uncontacted peoples as those who "reject contact with outsiders as an active and ongoing choice.... they resist intrusion, and thrive when their rights are respected".
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights refers to uncontacted peoples as "Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation". The Commissions defines these groups by their general rejection of contact with anyone outside of their own people. This definition also includes groups who have previously had sustained contact with the majority non-Indigenous society but have chosen to return to isolation and no longer maintain contact. As such, uncontacted peoples are contemporaries of modernity, not living in an anachronistic state of nature.
A 2009 United Nations report also classified "peoples in initial contact" as sharing the same characteristics who transition to regularly communicating with and integrating into mainstream society.
To highlight their agency in staying uncontacted or isolated, international organizations emphasize calling them "Indigenous peoples in isolation" or "in voluntary isolation". Otherwise, they have also been called "hidden peoples" or "uncontacted tribes".
Historically, European colonial ideas of uncontacted peoples, and their colonial claims over them, were informed by the imagination of and search for Prester John, king of a wealthy Christian realm in isolation, as well as the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, identifying uncontacted peoples as "lost tribes".
Relations with outsiders
International organizations have highlighted the importance of protecting indigenous peoples' environment and lands, of protecting them from exploitation or abuse, and of no contact to prevent the spread of modern diseases. In their 2025 report, Survival International predicted that almost half of the world's 196 uncontacted peoples could be wiped out within 10 years. The report states that the threats to uncontacted peoples mostly come from extractive industries, such as logging, mining, and oil and gas extraction. Survival International also highlighted threats from criminal gangs, well-funded missionaries, and social media influencers.Historic exploitation and abuse at the hands of the majority group have led many governments to give uncontacted people their lands and legal protection. Many Indigenous groups live on national forests or protected grounds, such as the Vale do Javari in Brazil or North Sentinel Island in India.
In 1961, British explorer Richard Mason was killed by an uncontacted Amazonian tribe, the Panará. The Panará lived in relative isolation until 1973 when the government project road BR-163 was built through their territory. Consequently, the tribe suffered from newly introduced diseases and environmental degradation of their land. Of the more than 350 members of the Panará tribe, more than 250 perished in the first twelve months after their first contact with settlers.
Much of the contention over uncontacted peoples has stemmed from governments' desire to extract natural resources. In the 1960s and 1970s, Brazil's federal government attempted to assimilate and integrate native groups living in the Amazon jungle to use their lands for farming. Their efforts were met with mixed success and criticism until, in 1987, Brazil created the Department of Isolated Indians inside the Fundação Nacional do Índio, Brazil's Indian Agency. FUNAI was successful in securing protected lands which have allowed certain groups to remain relatively uncontacted.
A different outcome occurred in Colombia when an evangelical group contacted the Nukak tribe of Indigenous people. The tribe was receptive to trade and eventually moved to have closer contact with settlers. This led to an outbreak of respiratory infections, violent clashes with illicit drug traffickers, and the death of hundreds of the Nukak—more than half of the tribe. Eventually, the Colombian government forcibly relocated the tribe to a nearby town where they received food and government support but were reported as living in poverty.
The dangers to isolated peoples demonstrated by contact with the Nukak tribe are generally shared across uncontacted peoples, particularly the desire of both national governments and private groups to exploit their lands for financial or social gain. This can include lumbering, ranching and farming, land speculation, oil prospecting and mining, and poaching. For example, then-Peruvian President Alan García claimed in 2007 that uncontacted groups were only a "fabrication of environmentalists bent on halting oil and gas exploration"., a Chinese subsidiary mining company in Bolivia ignored signs that they were encroaching on uncontacted tribes, and attempted to cover it up. In addition to commercial pursuits, other people such as missionaries can cause great damage.
It was those threats, combined with attacks on their tribe by illegal cocaine traffickers, that led a group of Acre Indians to make contact with a village in Brazil and subsequently with the federal government in 2014. This behaviour suggests that many tribes are aware of the outside world and choose not to make contact unless motivated by fear or self-interest. Satellite images suggest that some tribes intentionally migrate away from roads or logging operations to remain secluded.
Indigenous rights activists have often advocated that Indigenous peoples in isolation be left alone as contact will interfere with their right to self-determination as peoples. On the other hand, experience in Brazil suggests isolating peoples might want to have trading relationships and positive social connections with others, but choose isolation out of fear of conflict or exploitation. The Brazilian state organization FUNAI in collaboration with anthropological experts has chosen to make controlled initial contact with tribes. The organization operates 15 trading posts throughout protected territory where tribes can trade for metal tools and cooking instruments. The organization also steps in to prevent some conflicts and deliver vaccinations. FUNAI has been critical of political will in Brazil, reporting that it only received 15% of its requested budget in 2017. In 2018, after consensus among field agents, FUNAI released videos and images of several tribes under their protection. Although the decision was criticized, the director of the Isolated Indian department, Bruno Pereira, responded that "The more the public knows and the more debate around the issue, the greater the chance of protecting isolated Indians and their lands". He shared that the organization has been facing mounting political pressure to open up lands to commercial companies. He also justified the photography by explaining that FUNAI was investigating a possible mass homicide incident against the Flecheiros tribe.
Recognizing the myriad problems with contact, the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2009 and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2013 introduced guidelines and recommendations that included a right to choose self-isolation.
Human safaris in India's Andaman Islands and in the Peruvian Amazon—where tourism companies attempt to help tourists see uncontacted or recently contacted peoples—is controversial.
By region
India
Sentinelese
The Sentinelese people of North Sentinel Island, which lies near South Andaman Island in the Bay of Bengal, reject contact. Attempts to contact them have usually been rebuffed, sometimes with lethal force. Their language is markedly different from other languages of the Andamans, which suggests that they have been isolated for thousands of years. They have been called by experts the most isolated people in the world, and they are likely to remain so.Indian visits to the island ceased in 1997. An American, John Allen Chau, was killed in 2018 while visiting the island illegally as a Christian missionary. On March 29, 2025, a US citizen from Arizona made an unauthorised landing on the island, leaving behind a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as a peace offering. He was subsequently arrested by the Indian Police Service with a view to prosecution. Indigenous rights organization Survival International, which advocates for uncontacted peoples globally, condemned the illegal actions as "deeply disturbing", noting that uncontacted peoples like the Sentinelese are vulnerable to being wiped out by contact-induced diseases to which they have no immunity.