nter-gatherer concept to survive. The Aborigines hunted kangaroo and other game animals while the Native Americans generally hunted buffalo. Both cultures harvested and dispersed selected seeds to supplement their food stores in the winter and engaged in long distance trading. Many of the Native American tribes would gather together every year to celebrate religious ceremonies and to trade. And long distance travel is the only explanation for cross continental tribes using the same tools and irrigation techniques in Australia. By the time of the first notable European settlement in both countries (1788 in Australia and 1500s in America), the Aboriginal people had developed cultural traits and ecological knowledge that showed an impressive adaptation to their respective environments (Australian Aborigine). The total Native Australian population at the time was between 300,000 and 100,000, and the total Native American population at the time of European settlement was large as well (Encyclopedia Brittannica). Unfortunately, these proud cultures would experience a dramatic decline in population because of the white settlers on both continents. The declines resulted from the introduction of diseases for which the natives had little or no acquired immunity; social and cultural disruptions; brutal mistreatment; and reprisals for acts of organized resistance. By the 1920s, the Aboriginal and Native American population had dropped dramatically. The effects of this unfair treatment can still be seen today in both continents in terms of social and economic disadvantage. Unemployment rates, family income levels, welfare dependence, infant mortality rates, and average life expectancy fare badly in comparison with the populations as a whole( Native American, page five).The Native American and Aboriginal Australian cultures are very interesting. Their history is a lesson teaching us how not to treat people in the future. Both cultures ha...
