Mintakan The Mintakans were a proto - Vulcan humanoid species native to Mintaka III who existed in a Bronze Age state of technology . Once the Mintakans were religious and superstitious and believed in notions such as spirits of the dead haunting the living , supernatural beings or that the star s controlled their fate . Millennia before 2366 , despite their relatively minimal technological advancement , Mintakan culture evolved to highly empirical and had long since rejected the aforementioned superstitions and had been collecting astronomical and archaeological data for several generations . It also became a tradition that Mintakan women always walked in front of the men as a sign of ownership , and to stake out a negotiating position for any services that might be asked of the man . In 2366 , a Federation anthropological team studying the Mintakans accidentally exposed the primitive culture to 24th century technology when the duck blind from which they were operating had a reactor failure . The responded to the situation and unknowingly worsened the cultural contamination when the Mintakans observed their comings and goings . As a result , the previously discarded beliefs in supernatural beings began to resurface in the village most directly affected . This would eventually lead to their mistaking Jean - Luc Picard for the , one of their god s . To avert the contamination of their culture by the inadvertent violation of the Prime Directive , Captain Picard abducted the local leader , Nuria , in order to give her a guided tour of the ship to explain that the beings they discovered are simply mortals with advanced technology . Unexpectedly , Nuria believed that this " proved " that Picard was indeed the Overseer . It took her seeing the death of one of the anthropological team to prove to her that Picard and his people were mortal . When they returned to the planet , Liko finally believed the truth when he almost killed Picard with a bow and arrow . While cultural contamination occurred , it was relatively limited . The Mintakans gained only the knowledge that sentient life inhabited many worlds besides their own and that many seemingly impossible or divine feats , such as instantaneous transport and interstellar travel , could be achieved with a sufficiently high understanding of technology . The Mintakans were left to continue on something close to their original path of cultural evolution , as the " Enterprise " crew refused to allow access to advanced technology and explained that the Prime Directive proscribed additional contact or interference from the Federation and Starfleet until the Mintakans independently became a warp - capable culture many years in the future . Judging by Nuria ' s willingness to learn about the possibilities and limitations of a more technologically advanced life , Captain Picard was firmly confdient that the Mintakans would be able to achieve the same on their own ( ) Knowledge of the Mintakan incidence remained restricted and highly unlikely to be possessed by a Starfleet cadet . Later in 2366 , " Cadet Mitena Haro ' s " knowledge of the " Enterprise " s visit to Mintaka III led Captain Picard to realize she might be an imposter . ( )