for fidd^ wlMie tbey planted oom, potatoes, and ottafcr tilings 

 to eat. Some <rf the tmnks of the trees tbe^ would use for 

 tmilding tbdr catnns, others th^ would ^riit into laib to fence 

 their fidds, hog-pois, and the like; but the most tfaejr just 

 roHed into big piles and burnt up, in <Mder to get rid of the 

 logs and famsh. Qreat big Uack walnut trees and bur oaks 

 and others, that were thicker throug^i than I was and almost 

 as tall, were destroyed in this manner. But for some reason 

 thej let me alone. Neither was nrf fnend and near neigfabor, 

 the giant sycamore, nxdested until after the white people had 

 been here for several years, then one day came some men 

 with saws and axes and wagons and hoises, and began sawing 

 and cJiof^nng, a shtxt distance above the ground, upon the 

 trunk <rf mj friend. I knew what that meant, for I had be- 

 come familiar with such tUngs. I was distressed, but could 

 do nothing, and greatly feared that my turn would come next. 

 The sycamore finally fdl to the ground with a resounding 

 crash, t' any itig with it many small trees that stood in the line 

 of its fan. Then these men sawed up the biggest part of the 

 prostrate trunk into shmt blocks, and hauled them away, 

 leaving the most <rf the tree to rot upon the ground, where 

 much of it is to this day. I afterwards learned in some way 

 that these men had the ends of these short cuts smoothed <^, 

 and put them in idiat they called their butcher ^gops, and used 

 them for cutting up on the leveled surfaces <rf the Mocks the 

 bodies <rf animak: that the white people killed and ate for 

 food. It was a sad and pitiful end for the giant sycamore. 



"But the fate oi the wfld animals and birds was even 

 worse. As for the buffaloes, they had quit coming to my 

 nei^iborhood some time befcHe the last war I have mentioned. 

 The white pec^le were then not very far off, and had scared 

 or hunted the buffaloes away, and so they had gone to the big 

 prairies towards the sunset. But they could not escape the 

 white men, who would <rften kill great numbers of them for 

 no other purpose than '^Mxt,* as they called it. And now 

 there are none left, as I have been told, except a very few 

 who are kept in fmson pens for the white people to look at 

 as curiosities. But many deer and beaver were still here when 



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