We view this tangled situation mainly through the eyes of the central character, Hawkeye who, while having allegiance to both the white men and the Indians, remains an independent heroic figure. The plot allows Cooper to underline the dark irony of two European nations fighting for the conquest of a foreign land, to colonise it, and in the process utilising the American natives in order to conquer their own territory. It was a time when the American Indians were slowly disappearing as a race either because they were dying out or were being assimilated into the mainstream white population. The conflict involved British colonial settlers and minimal military forces fighting against the French with both sides also relying on Native Americans to support them in their struggles, each side determined to call the land theirs.

In this novel he is partnered with his Mohican foster brother Chingachgook.Ĭooper set this story during the Seven Years’ War, an international conflict between Great Britain and France known by the Anglo-American colonists as the French and Indian War.

He grew up to be a fearless warrior proficient in the use of many weapons, chiefly the long rifle. Natty Bumppo was the child of white parents but he was raised by the Delaware Indians inheriting their tracking and hunting skills. The most famous and popular of these novels is The Last of the Mohicans (1826) in which Bumppo is referred to as Hawkeye.

Each novel features the rather oddly named character Natty Bumppo, a frontier scout known to European-American settlers as ‘Leatherstocking’ because of his buckskin clothing. David Stuart Davies looks at a classic tale of American history.Īmerican author James Fenimore Cooper (1789 – 1851) penned five novels about frontier life across north-eastern America in the eighteenth century.

Novel the last of the mohicans