Chagossians formed a distinct society with their own culture and language.

Evidence

Barber’s numbers were not entirely correct. There were around one thousand people in Diego Garcia alone in the 1960s. With the other Chagos islands, the population of the archipelago actually numbered between fifteen hundred and two thousand. The Chagossians had been living there since the time of the American Revolution, when they were brought to the previously uninhabited islands as enslaved Africans and indentured Indians to work on French coconut plantations. After slavery was abolished in the territory in 1835, this diverse group had developed into its own society, with a distinct culture and a language known as Chagos Kreol. They called themselves the Ilois—the Islanders. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 178

Categorization

• XREF: Deepens the human dimension of the base story, reinforcing why the deportation was a destruction of a whole people, not just displacement of workers.