I think the writers of JAG must have known about this....
I remember a line in an episode where they were talking about Siberian peasants so isolated that they might not even know the Soviet union collapsed. The retort went something like "It wouldn't surprise me if there are people who still think the Czar is still in power!"
Amazingly this story actually comes close to making that line true! I'm very impressed with how the family was able to improvise for so long! (Loosing the kettles was quite the blow....
One thing i'm surprised about is that at no point where spears mentioned when it came to hunting wildlife.....
The whole story reminds me a lot of uncontacted tribes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_tribes