You know we keep heading the direction we're heading, we'll be asking one day how American's once made steel.  

Native American technology level prior to European settlement was pretty much figured bronze era at best.  Although some of the structures were quite impressive compared to say the average home in middle-ages Europe long after steel was introduced, communal cooperation on tasks made the need for individual tools much less.  

People like to think the US, for example, was wall to wall Indians but that really wasn't the case.  Much like today, population centers were around the coasts while areas rich in iron ore, lime, and coal the elements necessary tor iron were mostly on the other side of the Appalachian mountains.   There was actually quite an unsettled gap between the coast and the plains Indians.  That is until the settler pushed them west.  

The plains Indians on the other hand were true hunter gathers and nomadic.  

Contrary to popular belief, a lot this had to do with culture rather than a lack of desire.  For example, many native American's were quite adapt at making pottery and a pottery shard would make an excellent mass produced arrowhead.  Same goes for the entire industrialization discussion.  Though communal building was common, industrialization type barter labor not, that was as cultural as simply being behind.  The entire concept of ownership and trade was different which naturally leaned to individual family skill sets across a very large spectrum while Europeans in much larger communities specialized.  

This was so prevalent, its amusing how stupid the Native Americans thought the settlers for without any of the broad spectrum skills, they would be helpless in the Native American culture unable to provide for their own families.   We're actually worse off today as the average American can't make the tools necessary for survival.  

The native Americans though not so technologically advanced were cross trained in almost everything they did.  Though by any standard, their lifestyle was considered minimal, it was quite remarkably adaptive and suited like no other in history for war or upheaval.  At the time of American settlement few tribal cultures in the world could you subdivide the culture, a handful of people go off on their own, and expect them to survive.

Historically if you look a say the Aztecs and Mayans a culture steeped in specializations, once conquered they disappeared quite quickly from history while the North American tribes many are still with us today.  

The Native American was amazingly adaptive and suited for survival.  They were a culture in western terms every man a Leonardo Divinci trained in every skill set.  

How did they cut trees?  For the most part, they didn't.  If you look at early European sketches of Native American villages even the more complex ones, the majority use of logs came from thinner trees and they used a lot of bark.  This was material suited to what tools they had and very similar to the early bambo cultures of Asia, in which its believed they all derived.

Now that's a long explanation to say if you don't have a steel axe or saw, probably best not tackling a big tree.

You can take your lesson from the native American and there is other ways to skin that same animal.

Tj