Photo of a native tribe of indigenous people in the Amazonian rain forest.  The Amazonian indigenous peoples are traditionally semi-nomadic native tribes subsisting by hunting, fishing, gathering of wild plants, and horticulture.  Many of the original native tribes that existed in 1492 when Columbus first reached the Americas have died out or have become assimilated as a result of European immigration and settlement  Some estimate that the population of native tribes in pre-Columbian times was as high as six million people.  At present, only a relatively few native tribes still survive with their original cultures intact in isolated areas of the Amazon jungle, principally along the border of Peru and Brazil.