As recently as 1924, a lone Algonquin Indian lived quietly in Pelham Bay Park, a wild and isolated corner of New York City. Joe Two Trees was the last of his people, and this is the gripping story of his bitter struggle, remarkable courage, and constant quest for dignity and peace.

By the 1840s, most of the members of Joe’s Turtle Clan had either been killed or sold into slavery, and by the age of thirteen he was alone in the world. He made his way into Manhattan, but was forced to flee after killing a robber in self defense; from there, he found backbreaking work in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Finally, around the time of the Civil War, Joe realized there was no place for him in the White world, and he returned to his birthplace to live out his life alone—suspended between a lost culture and an alien one. Many years later, as an old man, he entrusted his legacy to the young Boy Scout who became his only friend, and here that young boy’s son passes it on to us.

Theodore Kazimiroff, the son of Joe Two Trees’s young confidant, writes historical, environmental, and natural history articles for several magazines. He lives in Bayville, New York.