12.10.2010 - 9:46
The Rockefellers are one of the most famous families in the world. But the life story of one of the offspring of the family is written in blood. An inquisitive young man disappeared without a trace in the jungle of New Guinea. According to many researchers, the young man was given the greatest honor - he was eaten by the natives as a sign of respect ...
Son of the Governor of New York
Michael Rockefeller was born in 1938 in the family of Nelson Rockefeller, the richest man in America. Even as a child, Michael began to be interested in history and anthropology, since he had every opportunity for this - his father did not skimp on the best books, he willingly bought various artifacts. The Rockefeller family also sponsored the Institute of Anthropology, allocated large sums for scientific research, and the boy was his own in scientific circles from childhood. He firmly decided to become a scientist and did not change his decision in his later years.
In 1960, the young man graduated from Harvard University, after which he spent several months in the army, dreaming about how he would soon go on a scientific expedition to New Guinea.
Michael's father by that time was the governor of New York, a political career occupied all his thoughts, but he welcomed his son's decision to see the life of the aborigines with his own eyes and collect a unique collection that tells about the life of the aborigines.
And in the fall of 1961, the young Rockefeller set off on a dangerous and exciting journey to Oceania ...
skull hunters
Michael and his companion, the Dutch ethnographer Rene Wassing, hired local guides named Leo and Simon and traveled around the villages of the natives, exchanging Papuan household items and art for steel hooks and axes.
Those, among other things, offered white researchers kushi - painted human skulls, and Rockefeller and Wassing willingly bought them.
Young scientists have collected a good collection (later became the decoration of the New York Museum of Primitive Art), but were not going to stop there.
Vassing and Rockefeller decided to go to the lost village of asthmatics, a local bloodthirsty tribe, to find unique artifacts there. Shortly before this, Rockefeller went to the Papuan shaman, who told Michael that he saw the mask of death on his face.
The shaman warned the researcher not to go to the Asmats. In this tribe, they believe that the soul of a person passes to the one who kills him and eats him. Therefore, cannibalism is the norm there.
But Michael did not believe the shaman and on November 18 he set out on his journey... The young scientists and their guides decided to get to the remote Asmat village along the river. Michael bought a flimsy home-made catamaran from the Papuans, hung a motor on it, and the researchers set off. The Papuans, seeing how their boat was overloaded, warned Rockefeller that trouble awaited him - the waves in these places can be simply huge, but he did not heed the advice ...
The catamaran moved successfully at first, but then the ship encountered a turbulent stream that flooded the water into the boat. The engine was flooded and it stalled. There were many crocodiles in this area, and people did not dare to leave their precarious shelter, in which food supplies and expensive equipment were stored.
The distance to the coast was about 3 kilometers, and Rockefeller decided to risk - though not with his life, but with his guides, sending them for help. Leo and Simon tied their fuel canisters to themselves and swam to the shore. They reached solid ground but got lost in the jungle and were found a few days later.
Michael and Rene waited unsuccessfully for help. And suddenly a huge wave doused the catamaran, turning it over. Rene grabbed the wreckage of the ship, and Michael shouted to him that he would swim to the shore. Wassing refused to follow him and watched as his comrade disappeared over the horizon ...
A few hours later, Wassinga was discovered by a Dutch naval seaplane. The pilots reported to the nearest port the coordinates of the crash site of the catamaran, and soon the Tasman schooner picked up Rene, who was almost unconscious. When he came to his senses, he told about all the circumstances of the disaster. All forces were thrown into the search for Michael Rockefeller, the richest heir in the United States. All the surrounding forests were combed, the bottom of the river was explored, the natives were interviewed, but no traces of Mark Rockefeller remained.
Nelson Rockefeller flew in from New York and laid out a huge sum to find his son, but Michael or his body was never found. The search was abandoned, the inconsolable father returned to the United States, and the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller remained one of the unsolved mysteries of the 20th century.
iron eyes
For several decades, researchers from all over the world have been trying to unravel the mystery of the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller.
It is not known whether he drowned in the river, whether sharks or crocodiles ate him, or something happened that is hard to imagine in a nightmare ...
Many believed that he could successfully swim to shore - like guides who avoided meeting with crocodiles and remained alive. Vassing, having spent many hours in the water, was also not attacked by predators and survived. Rockefeller was an excellent swimmer and simply could not drown.
The most common version of the death of the heir to millions sounds like this - he was ... eaten by the natives. He safely reached the shore, but was in the hands of a wild tribe. This version is based on the words of the Christian missionary Jan Smith, whose mission was located near the Asmat village. He claimed that he once saw how the Asmats carried the clothes of the missing Rockefeller, and in addition, they showed him bones that allegedly belonged to the missing youth. But Smith himself tragically died, and it was not possible to find out the details from him. Skeptics argued that Michael could have left the clothes with the natives during his previous visits, and the bones could have belonged to anyone.
But another missionary, Billem Heckman, claimed that the natives also told him about a certain murdered youth who was eaten by a certain tribe. His skull is in a special ritual house, which indicates that the young man was given the honor of being eaten.
The most interesting thing is that this skull has a feature - "iron eyes". Heckman said that this is how the natives call Rockefeller's metal glasses, which he never took off. But no one managed to find this skull with iron eyes, and the mystery of the death of Michael Rockefeller has not been solved ...
Nelson Rockefeller did not recover soon after the death of his son, which, however, did not affect his political career in any way - he became Vice President of the United States. At his expense, a wing was added to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the exposition of the Museum of Primitive Art is now stored. This wing, in memory of the young scientist, is called the Michael Rockefeller wing...
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Lost in the early 60s. XX century in New Guinea, the heir to the Rockefeller family was eaten by members of the Asmat tribe. The chain of events that led to the disappearance and death of Michael Rockefeller began in 1957.
His father, New York State Governor Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, who was the older brother of David Rockefeller - who is still the head of the Rockefeller clan at the age of 99 - opens the Museum of Primitive Art in New York. At that time it was called "the first of its kind museum of primitive art in the whole world."
At the age of 19, Michael becomes one of the members of the museum's board of trustees. Graduated with honors from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in history and economics, having served 6 months as a private in the US Army, full of energy and enthusiasm, Michael wanted to contribute to the collection of the museum, which his father opened.
Not wanting to buy any household items and art through intermediaries, Michael Rockefeller wanted to personally examine and find valuable items for the collection.
In March 1961, he went on an expedition organized by the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. The purpose of the expedition was to study the Dani tribe in Dutch New Guinea (from 1949 to 1962 the western part of the island of New Guinea was part of the colonial possessions of the Netherlands).
As part of the expedition, Rockefeller participated in the filming of the ethnographic documentary Dead Birds.
"I am driven by a thirst for adventure - in our time, when the boundaries, in the real sense of the world, disappear”.
Michael Rockefeller on an expedition to the Baliem Valley, Fr. New Guinea. 1961
During the expedition, he, along with one of his friends, also decides to study the Asmat tribe - Rockefeller has heard about their skillful jewelry and cult objects made of wood.
The expedition of the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology to study the Dani tribe continued until 1963. However, Rockefeller decided to interrupt his participation in it and return home: he had already decided to focus his attention on studying the Asmat tribe.
"The Asmats are like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, the pieces of which form different versions of their ceremonies and art styles. My travels allow me to understand (perhaps only on a superficial and elementary level) the nature of this mystery ..."
In October 1961, together with anthropologist René Wassing, he again went to New Guinea to continue studying the Asmats and pick up new exhibits for the collection of the Museum of Primitive Arts in New York.
In the city of Agats, Rockefeller and Vassing persuaded one of the Dutch patrolmen to sell them a homemade catamaran - a 12-meter canoe with a motor and attached pontoons. They loaded steel axes, fishhooks, various fabrics, clothes and tobacco into the catamaran in exchange for Asmat products.
Rockefeller and Wassing hired two local guides and went to the Asmat settlements scattered along the coast of the Arafura Sea. For 3 weeks, not staying anywhere for more than a few days, they visited 13 different Aboriginal villages.
In November, they returned to Agats to unload the exchanged items and prepare for a new expedition. Soon they set sail again.
On November 17, 1961, about 5 kilometers from the shore, the boat capsizes due to strong waves. The guides sail for help, Rockefeller and Wassing continue to drift in an overturned canoe. Wassing said: Rockefeller was afraid that they would be carried to the open sea. Deciding not to wait for help, on November 19, Rockefeller decides to swim ashore. His last words, according to Vassing, were:
"I think I can swim”
Subsequently, it was found that at that time there were about 15 kilometers to the coast. A few hours later, Vassing, still drifting on an overturned catamaran, was discovered by a Dutch seaplane, and the next day he was picked up by the Tasman schooner.
Rockefeller is gone. Large forces were thrown into his search, but they were unsuccessful. For several years he was listed as missing. He was officially declared dead in 1964.
Given the long distance to the coast, one of the main causes of death of Michael Rockefeller was then called drowning. There were also versions that sharks could eat it: various types of sharks dangerous to humans live in the Arafura Sea. Over time, other hypotheses began to be put forward: that he was abducted, went into the jungle, joined the natives, refusing the benefits of civilization.
However, over the years, more and more researchers began to lean towards the version that Rockefeller still managed to swim to the shore, where he was overtaken by death at the hands of members of the Asmat tribe.
A number of witnesses stated that they saw clothes and glasses belonging to Michael Rockefeller among the Papuans. In addition, an explanation for the murder of a young man by the Asmats also appeared: allegedly it was revenge on the Dutch authorities for the murder of five natives from the tribe.
In March 2014, this version was described in detail by the American writer Carl Hoffman. He believes that Rockefeller was killed near the coast by members of the Asmat tribe.
According to Hoffman, he managed to find hundreds of pages of various documents: original reports, telegrams and letters that were exchanged between the Dutch authorities and local missionary priests of the Catholic Church.
According to him, "the priests made long and detailed reports indicating specific names - which of the natives had Michael's head, who had other parts of the skeleton."
The American media claim that one of the mysteries of the last century is close to its final resolution. The NYPOST and FoxNews publications in their articles (Documentary confirms Michael Rockefeller was eaten by cannibals / Documentary: Michael Rockefeller was eaten by cannibals) stated that the version of the murder and eating of Michael Rockefeller by cannibals is confirmed by a documentary film based on the films of researcher Milt Machlin, which in 1969 conducted his own investigation into the disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea.
The Search for Michael Rockefeller will be released in early February 2015. The official website searchformichael.com dedicated to the film appeared in 2010. However, the filmmakers only recently managed to complete its processing and agree about release.
It is worth adding that the Museum of Primitive Art in New York ceased to exist in 1976. However, the Asmat art collected by Michael Rockefeller and Rene Wassing was transferred by Nelson Rockefeller to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1979. Today they are featured in the Michael Rockefeller Wing.
Plan
Introduction
1 Biography
2 Expedition to Oceania
3 Versions of the disappearance
4 Documentaries
Bibliography
Introduction
Michael Rockefeller (1938-presumably 1961) - American ethnographer and anthropologist, explorer, son of prominent politician and banker Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, went missing during an expedition to Indonesia.
1. Biography
Michael Rockefeller was born in 1938 in the family of American banker Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, was the great-grandson of the first dollar billionaire John Rockefeller. From childhood, Michael was interested in history and anthropology, which was supported by his father. He spent a lot of time at the Institute of Anthropology, which was funded by the Rockefeller family. Michael decided to become a scientist, for which he entered Harvard University. He graduated in 1960 and served in the US Army for several months.
Michael Rockefeller dreamed of going on a scientific expedition to Oceania, collecting a collection that told about the life and life of the natives. Nelson Rockefeller welcomed his son's decision and allocated money for the trip.
2. Expedition to Oceania
Michael Rockefeller went on an expedition in the fall of 1961 with the Dutch ethnographer René Wassing. They hired two guides from local residents - some Leo and Simon, and together with them traveled around the settlements of the natives, exchanging their household items and art for metal products. Rockefeller and Wassing bought, among other things, also painted human skulls. After some time, they collected a whole collection, which was later placed on display at the New York Museum of Primitive Art, but they decided not to stop there. They decided to go to the settlement of the local cannibalistic Asmat tribe in order to get unique items. The natives dissuaded Rockefeller from going to the Asmats, saying that there are superstitions in this tribe that a person’s soul goes to the one who killed and ate him, and the shaman of one of the tribes told him that he sees a “mask of death” on his face.
Despite the persuasion of the natives not to go to the Asmats, on November 17, 1961, Rockefeller, Wassing, Leo and Simon went to them. Rockefeller bartered a homemade boat from the natives, hung a motor on it and set off with his companions to a distant Asmat settlement along the river, despite the fact that the boat was clearly overloaded. After a while, the boat's engine stalled. It was about three kilometers to the shore, and the expedition guides Leo and Simon, having tied fuel canisters to themselves, swam to the shore. They managed to reach the shore, despite the danger of being attacked by crocodiles, but they got lost in the jungle and were not discovered until a few days later.
Rockefeller and Vassing remained in the boat, but it was soon overturned by a wave. Vassing managed to hold on to her wreckage, and Rockefeller shouted to him that he would swim to shore. Wassing refused to sail with him, and saw him swim to shore. Nobody saw Michael Rockefeller again. A few hours later Wassing was discovered by a Dutch naval seaplane and then picked up by the schooner Tasman. When Vassing came to his senses, he told about all the circumstances. Large forces were thrown in search of Michael Rockefeller, but no traces could be found. Soon, Nelson Rockefeller flew in from New York, sponsoring the search for his son, but Michael or his body were never found.
3. Versions of the disappearance
It is still not exactly established what happened to Michael Rockefeller. Many were inclined to believe that he could not drown in the river or be attacked by crocodiles. According to the most common version, Rockefeller was killed and eaten by the Asmats. According to Christian missionary Ian Smith, whose mission was not far from the Asmat settlement, he saw that the natives carried the clothes of the missing explorer, moreover, they showed him bones that could belong to Michael. Soon Smith died tragically, and it was not possible to find out in more detail. Another missionary claimed that the natives also told him about the murdered and eaten youth, whose skull with "iron eyes" (probably the glasses that Rockefeller always wore) was kept by the shaman of the tribe, but there was no evidence of this. There is also a version that Rockefeller was killed by the Asmats, who were afraid that he was a sea monster that came out of the water. According to their beliefs, the monsters had a human appearance and white skin.
4. Documentaries
· "The Missing Rockefeller Expedition" from the series "Secrets of the Century".
Bibliography:
1. Natalya Trubinovskaya. Michael Rockefeller - eaten millionaire (Russian). Chronoton (10/12/10).
2. L. Olgin. Why didn't the Asmats eat Rockefeller. (Russian). Around the World (No. 3 (2546) March 1971).
Even in the 20th century, New Guinea still remained a kind of cannibal reserve. Real information about the life and customs of the tribes of this huge island in the 50-60s was obtained at the risk of life by the famous Danish writer and traveler Arne Falk-Renne. His excellent book “Journey to the Stone Age. Among the tribes of New Guinea” is still a kind of encyclopedia illustrating the life of the Papuans.
In his book, Falk-Rönne summarized all the facts regarding the death of Michael Rockefeller. Before moving on to this tragic story, let's remember a little about the adventures of the Danish traveler himself. This will help us to more realistically imagine all the danger that a young American exposed his life to, the heir to a huge fortune, the details of whose death are still unknown.
Once Arne Falk-Rönne went on a campaign with the warriors of one of the local tribes and witnessed a terrible scene that stuck in his memory for life. During the ascent along the slippery path to the crest of the mountain, one elderly man became ill, he fell and was breathing heavily, unable to get up. Arne was about to help him, but the warrior Siu-Kun, known for his courage, was ahead of him. He ran up to the old man, swung his stone ax and pierced his skull...
The European was even more shocked when he learned that Siu-Kun had killed his father ... The translator explained this nightmarish act to him this way: “The son must help his father die. A real man is destined to die a violent death, best of all in battle. If the spirits are so unhappy, the son must come to his aid and kill him. It's an act of love."
The manifestation of filial love did not end with the murder of the old man, it turned out that Siu-Kun still had to eat the brain of his father... should not see how the son helps his father go to the realm of the dead and eats the brain of the deceased.
Ten minutes later, Siu-Kun returned, and the detachment continued on its way.
In response to a Danish traveler's bewildered question about the need to bury the deceased, the translator spoke about the local custom: “If someone dies on a hike, his body is left in the grass or the jungle, provided that there is no housing nearby. Here they fear only one thing: that the corpse does not fall into the wrong hands, while the meat is still edible. If the places are uninhabited, this can not be afraid.
Photo by Michael Clarke Rockefeller
Failed wedding or kisses with a mummy
Arne Falk-Rönne's stay in the tribe ended in a rather tragicomic way: his leader decided to marry the Danish traveler to his daughter ... The traveler's shock and horror from this proposal are clearly felt in the questions addressed to the reader of his book: , following the laws of the tribe, does not wash himself in order to smell like a woman as much as possible? In a girl who daily smears herself with rancid lard, and on especially solemn occasions with the fat of dead relatives; a girl who rubs her thighs and buttocks with urine, which is stored in a special room, the so-called month hut, where women go during menstruation?
The whole horror of this proposal lay in the fact that it was almost impossible to refuse it: Arne could simply be killed ... Gritting his teeth and trembling with disgust, the Dane took part in a kind of “engagement”: he had to crawl into the “month-old” hut and kiss him on the navel the mummy of a woman who distinguished herself in the tribe by the greatest fertility ...
How did this whole story end? When the wedding was already inevitable, Arne made the leader and four of his close associates drink cocoa with sleeping pills. Under cover of night, the Dane and his companions fled the village. By the end of the day that followed, the chase nevertheless overtook the fugitives, under a hail of arrows they managed to cross the suspension bridge across the river; having cut the vines, they brought down the bridge into the river and thus escaped the terrible revenge of the angry Papuans.
One of the exhibits collected by Rockefeller
Don't give your name!
I think that after these creepy stories, it is quite clear to you how unsafe the expedition was undertaken in the fall of 1961 by Michael Clark Rockefeller, son of Nelson Rockefeller, governor of the state of New York. What did the young American lose in the wilds of New Guinea?
Michael Rockefeller was the brightest representative, one might even say, one of the symbols of the twentieth century. The son of a famous billionaire, Michael pursued his ambitions on long and dangerous journeys. However, he did not just observe and explore. He invaded the wild, primeval places of the planet, like a conqueror, like a "white beast".
In 1961, Michael devoted himself to expeditions to New Guinea, carrying out a seemingly noble mission to study the tribes living a primitive culture. These expeditions were commissioned by the Harvard Peabody Museum and the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art.
The main task was to collect unique Asmatian wood products, namely bis, that is, carved totems that served to attract the souls of the dead. However, Michael was more interested in kushi - human skulls, decorated with magical symbols.
The fact is that among the local aborigines there was a terrible thousand-year tradition of headhunting. Even in order to get the right to marry, each young man was obliged to provide his fellow tribesmen with the head of a killed enemy. The presence of kushi was considered an indispensable honor for every male house.
In the late 50s of the twentieth century, this tradition was so rapidly implemented by the Asmats that the birth rate increased significantly among them. The baby boom was explained simply - young men successfully confirmed their right to marry. The Dutch police, who kept order in New Guinea, were forced to send special raids to the most militant villages, using machine guns to increase the suggestion.
Michael Rockefeller, the pampered child of Western civilization, was delighted with the described tradition. So at the very beginning of 1961, he went to the primitive tribes of the Baliem valley, where he organized a blatant bargain. Declared a reward of 10 steel axes for a fresh human head.
Asmats were inspired. The offered price was for them the ultimate dream. To say at least that the payment to the bride's family was equal to one ax, and stone axes were used in everyday life, and it was required to be a prosperous hunter in order to acquire at least a blank stone.
Little of! Michael began to provoke the Asmats to hunt for heads not only with market incentives. He began openly inciting hunters to clash with neighboring tribes. He handed over an ax in exchange for any valuable piece of wood and hinted that the new weapon should pass the test, partake of fresh blood. Why did he need it? He filmed deadly skirmishes. Michael can be considered one of the first true priests of the modern deity - television.
A parliamentary commission arrived at the place of "research" from The Hague. It was she who reasoned with Rockefeller Jr., forbidding him to stay in New Guinea. During the investigation, the parliamentarians found out that thanks to the efforts of Michael, seven people were killed in the Kurulu district, and more than ten were seriously injured.
The proud twenty-three-year-old American did not calm down. Soon, in November of the same 1961, he organized his own expedition, which aroused the concern of the Dutch authorities and the impatience of the natives, who were waiting for him not only to acquire axes.
Slender, fair-haired, wearing inexpensive glasses, Michael did not at all look like the son of a millionaire. He was considered a fairly experienced traveler, in the spring of 1961 he had already participated in the ethnographic expedition of the Harvard Peabody Museum to New Guinea, and the local flavor was quite familiar to him.
Michael made another mistake - he told the Asmat his name, and among the wild tribes of New Guinea at that time it was almost tantamount to a suicide attempt ... The head is worth twice as much if the name of the murdered is known. The Papuans might have formed the opinion that the village that manages to get into its men's home, a kind of repository of tribal relics, the head of such a powerful white man, whose name they know, will gain unprecedented strength and overcome all its enemies.
The catamaran takes you to the sea
On November 18, 1961, a small expedition of Michael Rockefeller, in which, in addition to him, his Dutch colleague Rene Wassing and two guides, Leo and Simon, took part, set off on a catamaran along the coast to the village of Ats. The catamaran was very antediluvian. It consisted of two pies fastened together at a distance of two meters. On the floor between the pirogues there was a bamboo hut, in which people took shelter from rain and wind, there were also film equipment, supplies, as well as goods for exchange with the Papuans. The catamaran was powered by an 18 horsepower outboard motor.
The sea was rough, but the motor coped, and the travelers managed to keep the catamaran in the right direction. However, soon the ebb from the mouth of the Eilanden River began to catch up with the wave, the weak motor stopped coping, and the catamaran began to be carried farther and farther into the open sea. The pitching became stronger, the pontoon pirogues began to fill with water. Suddenly, a large wave completely overwhelmed the catamaran, the engine stalled, and the ship began to sink.
Dangerous attempt
It was about 2.5 km to the coast, but neither Michael nor Rene wanted to leave the catamaran, where equipment and supplies were stored. They sent Leo and Simon for help. The guides each took an empty canister as life belts and jumped into the water. There was no certainty that the daredevils would reach the shore, everyone was perfectly aware of this. There were many sharks in the coastal waters, and very large crocodiles were found at the mouth of the river. In addition, everyone knew that along the coast there was a wide strip of swamp silt, too thick to swim through, and too thin to support the weight of a person. It should be taken into account that even having overcome all the obstacles, Leo and Simon could stumble upon Asmats, and this threatened them with death.
There were long hours of waiting. In the evening, a huge wave rolled onto the catamaran. He could not stand it: the catamaran capsized, the deck fell apart, all provisions and equipment were washed overboard. There was one pirogue left, and Michael and Rene held on to it. They spent the whole night in cold water, in the morning Michael decided to swim to the shore, considering this the only chance for salvation. In his opinion, Simon and Leo either did not sail, or were captured by some tribe.
Rene strongly objected to Michael's plan, he called it recklessness: the current near the coast is so powerful that even a strong swimmer will be carried back to the sea until he is exhausted. Michael was an excellent crawl swimmer, he believed in himself, so, grabbing an empty red barrel from an outboard motor, he headed for the distant shore. Michael's last words that Rene heard were: "I think I can do it."
The disappearance of Michael Rockefeller
After 8 hours, when René had already given up hope, he was discovered by a Dutch Navy seaplane sent in search of the missing. He dropped a rescue rubber boat to him, Rene barely overcame the 25 meters that separated him from her, but it turned out that she was turned upside down. Rene spent another terrible night at sea, in the morning the plane appeared again, but it was not found. When the Dutchman was already saying goodbye to life, the plane appeared again, this time he shook his wings, which gave new hope for salvation. Three hours later, the exhausted Wassing was picked up by the Dutch schooner Tasman.
Have you found Michael? - immediately asked Rene.
However, Michael Rockefeller disappeared, although the most thorough searches were organized. Not even a day had passed since his disappearance, when Nelson Rockefeller and his daughter Mary set off for New Guinea in a jet plane. On a small plane, he flew as close as possible to the area where his son disappeared, where, together with the Dutch governor Platteel, he led a search expedition to the country of the Asmats.
In search of the missing, a mass of people was raised. Michael's father flew in from New York, New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and with him thirty, two American correspondents, and the same number from other countries. About two hundred Asmats voluntarily and on their own initiative ransacked the coast.
Patrol boats, missionary motor boats, crocodile hunters pies and even Australian helicopters took part in the search for the young Rockefeller. A reward was announced for information about the fate of Michael. But all these efforts were in vain and did not give any results. A week later, the search was stopped, without finding traces of the missing person. Eight days later, Rockefeller lost hope of saving his son and returned to New York with his daughter.
What happened to Michael? Did he become prey to sharks or crocodiles, or drowned, unable to cope with the current? Or did he still make it to the shore, was killed and eaten by the Asmats? Rene Wassing was convinced that Michael had not made it to shore. But this belief of René was contradicted by the fact that Leo and Simon were still able to reach the shore and escape, they also informed the missionaries about what had happened.
Most likely, Michael still managed to get to the shore, it is believed that he got ashore much south of the mouth of the Eilander River. In 1965, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraf published information gleaned from a letter from the Dutch missionary Jan Smith. His mission was closest to the Asmat village of Oschanep. Smith wrote to his brother that he had seen Rockefeller's clothes in a Papuan village, and that they even showed him the bones of an American. Unfortunately, by that time Smith was no longer alive, so it was impossible to verify this information.
Another missionary, Willem Heckman, claimed that Rockefeller was killed by soldiers from Oschanep as soon as he got ashore. The missionary said that the villagers told him what had happened, as well as the fact that Michael's skull was in the men's house of the village. In 1964, refugees from Asmat territory reached the administrative center of Daru, in Papua, Australia. About 35 of them claimed that Michael Rockefeller was killed by Oschanep's warriors, "boiled and eaten with sago."
It should also be taken into account that three years before the tragedy with Rockefeller, a punitive detachment was sent to Oschanep in order to stop intertribal clashes: bullets killed many soldiers, including three close relatives of the leader Ayam. The leader swore revenge on the whites, perhaps he took the opportunity to keep his oath.
Alas, three tribal leaders who could solve the mystery of Michael's disappearance died during an inter-tribal war in 1967. Surprisingly, during the search expedition of 1961, a number of unforgivable mistakes were made, which were pointed out by A. Falk-Renne. For example, the search expedition did not reach Oschanep then, and the report of the police inspector E. Heemskerks, in which the words of the Papuans were quoted that Michael was killed and eaten by warriors from Oschanep, for some reason was put aside. Maybe Michael's father, having made sure that his son was probably dead, decided not to get to the bottom of the nightmarish details of his death and consoled himself with the thought that his heir died among the waves?
Perhaps Michael's skull, turned into kushi, is still kept in some secluded place. Will he ever find peace in the homeland of his ancestors? Unknown...
And here is some more information:
With the passage of time, the name of the deceased ethnographer disappeared from the pages of newspapers and magazines. His diaries formed the basis of the book, the collections he collected adorned the New York Museum of Primitive Art. These things were of purely scientific interest, and the general public began to forget the mysterious story that happened in the swampy region of the Asmats.
But in a world where a sensation, no matter how ridiculous, means a sure opportunity to make big money, the story with the son of a billionaire was not destined to end there ...
In late 1969, the Australian newspaper Reveil published an article by a certain Garth Alexander with a definitive and intriguing headline: "I tracked down the cannibals who killed Rockefeller."
“... It is widely believed that Michael Rockefeller drowned or became a victim of a crocodile off the southern coast of New Guinea when he tried to swim to the coast.
However, in March of this year, a Protestant missionary informed me that the Papuans living near his mission killed and ate a white man seven years ago. They still have his glasses and watches. Their village is called Oschanep.
... Without much thought, I went to the indicated place to find out the circumstances there. I managed to find a guide, Papuan Gabriel, and up the river flowing through the swamps, we sailed for three days before reaching the village. Two hundred painted warriors met us in Oschanep. Drums rumbled all night. In the morning, Gabriel told me that he could bring a man who, for a couple of packs of tobacco, was ready to tell me how it all happened.
... The story turned out to be extremely primitive and, I would even say, ordinary.
A white man, naked and alone, staggered out of the sea. He was probably ill, because he lay down on the shore and still could not get up. People from Oschanep saw him. There were three of them, and they thought it was a sea monster. And they killed him.
I asked about the names of the killers. Papuan was silent. I insisted. Then he muttered reluctantly:
One of the people was Chief Ove.
Where is he now?
What about others?
But the Papuan was stubbornly silent.
Did the dead man have mugs on his eyes? - I meant glasses.
Papuan nodded.
And the watch on your hand?
Yes. He was young and slim. He had fiery hair.
So, eight years later, I managed to find the man who saw (or maybe killed) Michael Rockefeller. Without letting the Papuan come to his senses, I quickly asked:
So who were those two people?
There was a noise from behind. Silent, painted people crowded behind me. Many clutched spears in their hands. They listened carefully to our conversation. They may not have understood everything, but the Rockefeller name was certainly familiar to them. It was useless to ask further - my interlocutor looked frightened.
I'm sure he was telling the truth.
Why did they kill Rockefeller? They probably mistook him for a sea spirit. After all, the Papuans are sure that evil spirits have white skin. And it is possible that a lonely and weak person seemed to them a tasty prey.
In any case, it is clear that the two killers are still alive; That's why my informant got scared. He had already told me too much and now he was ready to confirm only what I already knew - the people from Oschanep killed Rockefeller when they saw him getting out of the sea.
When, exhausted, he lay down on the sand, three, led by Uwe, raised the spears that ended the life of Michael Rockefeller ... "
Garth Alexander's story might seem true if...
... if almost simultaneously with the newspaper "Reveil" a similar story was not published by the magazine "Osheania" also published in Australia. Only this time, Michael Rockefeller's glasses were "discovered" in the village of Atch, twenty-five miles from Oschanep.
In addition, both stories contained picturesque details that made connoisseurs of the life and customs of New Guinea alert.
First of all, it seemed not very convincing explanation of the motives for the murder. If the people from Oschanep (according to another version, from Atch) really mistook the ethnographer coming out of the sea for an evil spirit, then they would not have raised a hand against him. Most likely, they would simply run away, for among the innumerable ways to fight evil spirits, there is no battle with them face to face.
The version "about the spirit" most likely fell away. Besides, people from the Asmat villages knew Rockefeller well enough to mistake him for someone else. And since they knew him, they would hardly have attacked him. The Papuans, according to people who know them well, are unusually loyal in friendship.
When, after some time, traces of the missing ethnographer began to be “found” in almost all coastal villages, it became clear that the matter was pure fiction. Indeed, the check showed that in two cases the story of Rockefeller's disappearance was told to the Papuans by missionaries, and in the rest, the Asmats, gifted with a couple or two packs of tobacco, in the form of a reciprocal courtesy, told the correspondents what they wanted to hear.
Real traces of Rockefeller could not be found this time either, and the mystery of his disappearance remained the same mystery.
Perhaps it would not be worth remembering more about this story, if not for one circumstance - that glory of cannibals, which, with the light hand of gullible (and sometimes unscrupulous) travelers, firmly entrenched in the Papuans. It was she who ultimately made plausible any guesses and assumptions.
Among the geographical information of ancient times, people-eaters - anthropophagi occupied a strong place next to people with dog heads, one-eyed cyclops and dwarfs living underground. It should be recognized that, unlike the psoglavtsy and the cyclops, cannibals actually existed. Moreover, at the time of the ona, cannibalism was found everywhere on Earth, not excluding Europe. (By the way, what else but a relic of ancient times can explain communion in the Christian church, when believers “eat the body of Christ”?) But even in those days it was an exceptional phenomenon rather than an everyday one. Man tends to distinguish himself and his kind from the rest of nature.
In Melanesia - and New Guinea is a part of it (though very different from the rest of Melanesia) - cannibalism was associated with tribal feuds and frequent wars. Moreover, it must be said that it took on wide dimensions only in the 19th century, not without the influence of Europeans and the firearms they imported. It sounds paradoxical. Weren't the European missionaries laboring to wean the "wild" and "ignorant" natives from their bad habits, sparing neither their own efforts nor the natives? Did not every colonial power swore (and does not swear to this day) that all its activities are aimed only at bringing the light of civilization to godforsaken places?
But in reality, it was the Europeans who began to supply the leaders of the Melanesian tribes with guns and kindle their internecine wars. But it was precisely New Guinea that did not know such wars, just as it did not know hereditary chiefs who formed a special caste (and on many islands cannibalism was the exclusive privilege of leaders). Of course, the Papuan tribes were at enmity (and still are at enmity in many parts of the island) among themselves, but the war between the tribes happens no more than once a year and lasts until one warrior is killed. (If the Papuans were civilized people, would they be satisfied with one warrior? Isn't this convincing proof of their savagery?!)
But among the negative qualities that the Papuans attribute to their enemies, cannibalism always comes first. It turns out that they, the enemy neighbors, are dirty, wild, ignorant, deceitful, treacherous and cannibals. This is the heaviest accusation. There can be no doubt that the neighbors, in turn, are no less generous in unflattering epithets. And of course, they confirm, our enemies are undeniable cannibals. In general, cannibalism is no less disgusting for most tribes than for you and me. (True, some mountain tribes in the interior of the island are known to ethnographers who do not share this disgust. But - and all credible researchers agree on this - they never hunt people.) Since much information about unexplored areas was obtained precisely through questioning of the local population, then “tribes of white-skinned Papuans”, “New Guinea Amazons” and numerous notes appeared on the maps: “the area is inhabited by cannibals”.
... In 1945, many soldiers of the defeated Japanese army in New Guinea fled to the mountains. For a long time no one remembered them - it was not before that, sometimes expeditions that fell into the interior of the island stumbled upon these Japanese. If it was possible to convince them that the war was over and they had nothing to fear, they returned home, where their stories got into the newspapers. In 1960, a special expedition set off from Tokyo to New Guinea. It was possible to find about thirty former soldiers. All of them lived among the Papuans, many were even married, and the corporal of the medical service Kenzo Nobusuke even held the post of shaman of the Kuku-Kuku tribe. According to the unanimous opinion of these people, who went through "fire, water and copper pipes", the traveler in New Guinea (provided that he does not attack first) is not threatened by any danger from the Papuans. (The value of the testimony of the Japanese lies also in the fact that they visited various parts of the giant island, including Asmat.)
... In 1968, the boat of the Australian geological expedition capsized on the Sepik River. Only collector Kilpatrick, a young guy who first came to New Guinea, managed to escape. After two days of wandering through the jungle, Kilpatrick came to the village of the Tangawata tribe, recorded by experts who had never been in those places as the most desperate cannibals. Fortunately, the collector did not know this, because, according to him, "if I knew this, I would have died of fear when they put me in a net attached to two poles and carried me to the village." The Papuans decided to carry him, because they saw that he was barely moving from fatigue. It took only three months for Kilpatrick to reach the Seventh-day Adventist mission. And all this time they were leading him, passing literally "from hand to hand", people of different tribes, about whom it was only known that they were cannibals!
"These people know nothing about Australia and its government," writes Kilpatrick. But do we know more about them? They are considered savages and cannibals, and yet I have not seen the slightest suspicion or hostility on their part. I have never seen them beat children. They are incapable of stealing. Sometimes it seemed to me that these people are much better than us.
In general, most benevolent and honest researchers and travelers who made their way through coastal swamps and impregnable mountains, visited the deep valleys of the Ranger Range, saw a variety of tribes, come to the conclusion that the Papuans are extremely friendly and sharp-witted people.
“Once,” writes the English ethnographer Clifton, “in a club in Port Moresby, we started talking about the fate of Michael Rockefeller. My interlocutor snorted:
Why bother? Gobbled up, they have it for a short time.
We argued for a long time, I could not convince him, and he me. Yes, and even if we argue for a year, I would remain convinced that the Papuans - and I knew them well - are incapable of harming a person who came to them with a good heart.
... More and more I am surprised by the deep contempt that officials of the Australian administration have for these people. Even for the most educated patrol officer, the locals are "rock monkeys". The word that the Papuans are called here is "long". (The word is untranslatable, but it means an extreme degree of contempt for the person it denotes.) For the local Europeans, "oli" is something that, unfortunately, exists. No one teaches their languages, no one will really tell you about their customs and habits. Savages, cannibals, monkeys - that's all ... "
Any expedition erases the “white spot” from the map, and often in places indicated by the brown color of the mountains, the green of the lowlands appears, and the bloodthirsty savages, immediately devouring any foreigner, upon closer examination, do not turn out to be such. The purpose of any search is to destroy ignorance, including the ignorance that makes people savages.
But, besides ignorance, there is also an unwillingness to know the truth, an unwillingness to see changes, and this unwillingness gives rise to and tries to preserve the wildest, most cannibalistic ideas ...
