Onge people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (101 (Census of India 2011)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Indiawestern side of Little Andaman Island |
|
| Languages | |
| Önge | |
| Religion | |
| traditional religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Andamanese peoples, particularly Jarawa |
The Onge (also Önge, Ongee, and Öñge) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, they are a designated Scheduled Tribe of India.
In the 18th century the Onge were distributed across Little Andaman Island and the nearby islands, with some territory and camps established on Rutland Island and the southern tip of South Andaman Island. After encounter with British colonial officers, friendly relations were established with the British Empire in the 1800s, through Lieutenant Archibald Blair. British naval officer M. V. Portman described them as the "mildest, most timid, and inoffensive" group of Andamanese people he had encountered. By the end of the 19th century they sometimes visited the South and North Brother Islands to catch sea turtles; at the time, those islands seemed to be the limit between their territory and the range of the Great Andamanese people further north. Today, the surviving members (fewer than 100) are confined to two reserve camps on Little Andaman, Dugong Creek in the northeast and South Bay.
The Onge were semi-nomadic and used to be fully dependent on hunting and gathering for food.
The Onge are one of the indigenous people of Andaman Islands. Together with the other Andamanese tribes and a few other isolated groups elsewhere in South Asia and Southeast Asia, they comprise the Negrito peoples, believed to be remnants of a very early migration out of Africa.
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