The minority tribal groups in the border zones of Southern Thailand (the ‘Sakai’) are often described as ‘disappearing’ demographically while the inability to ‘know’ them at first hand by successive interested parties (the colonial explorer, the naturalist, the government official) has been attributed to their ability to disappear into the jungle, seemingly without a trace. This paper discusses the way the ‘Sakai’ have faded in and out of ethnology and Thai public consciousness, due in part to their own survival imperatives, and in part to the character of Thai state and society.