“If a culture involves .50 caliber machine guns it must be a very polite culture”
I lived in Alaska for many, many years. The thing that always got me about “native culture” hunting and gathering is/was how the natives will scream about their right to hunt, fish and gather becuase of tradition, but will use every mondern method to make it easier. It is all B.S.
It is their tradition. The use of improved tools does not change that fact. When they don't eat what they take, then the foundation of the tradition is gone and you'll have a point.
If they want to adhere to tradition, then they should hunt with spears.
I suspect that Native Americans in the lower 48 would have eventually decimated the buffalo with just horses and rifles. Sorta like fishing with dynamite — or whaling with artillery (not that a 50 cal is artillery, I’m referring to the gun-fired harpoons with explosive heads).