diary entry of a translator

My relations with the Indians have been twofold. I have been a member of the Improved Order of Red Men for ten years and I have served as a translator for various negotiations and treaties with Indian tribes. Thus, I have had more exposure to Indians in the flesh than most of my colleagues in the IORM.
 Of my various experiences as a translator, one particular negotiation stands out in my memory because, for various reasons, I had the opportunity to talk to the Indians about things outside of the treaty. One Indian boy in particular fascinated me because he seemed to have no idea that his way of life was dramatically changing. This boy was very much alive and talkative and seemingly in love with all things and effusive about it. And as the Indians depart farther and farther westward and further into the past, men must record what they have meant to the founding of this great nation. I am not a historian but the translator's job can be compared to that of a historian. When I convert the crude and savage mind-pictures of Indian language to the civilized abstractions of English, some things get lost or distorted, necessarily, but I must try to capture the savagery as best as I could. When the historian reconstructs the past, some things can never be recovered, but the most important aspects of the past, the essence, finds due expression. When I die, that boy and his peculiar wants and desires won't be remembered, but the essence of the various Indian tribes will, thanks to historians, and, most of all, thanks to the overlooked wonder of the abstraction of words.