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THE DEERSLAYER
James Fenimore Cooper
Table of Contents
Classic Literature: Words and Phrases
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The Last of the Mohicans
The first thing to note about
The eponymous last Mohicans are two tribesmen who assist Natty Bumppo in his exploits. They are Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Cooper seems to have erroneously believed that the Mohegan/Mahican had become extinct by his own lifetime. In fact both remained extant peoples, except that they had largely given up their hunter-gatherer lifestyles by that time. Also, the Mahican had become known as the Stockbridge Indians, having settled in the town of Stockbridge. Cooper was a city dweller, so was rather out of touch with anthropological accuracy. Besides, the title lent the story an air of romanticism and nostalgia, so Cooper may well have invented the myth to suit his literary ends.
The historical setting for the novel is the Seven Years War (1756–63), in which all of the European powers vied for supremacy on the world stage. In America it became known as the French and Indian War. It was actually fought between the British and the French, with the Native Americans siding with the latter. Ultimately the British won, which is why the official language of the US is English. The French took Canada. Central to the plot of the story is the kidnap of the British commander’s daughters by members of the Huron tribe. It is Chingachgook and Bumppo who rescue them and deliver them back safely, thereby living up to the idea of the noble savage. In a way, it was convenient for Cooper to kill the Mohicans off. In the early 19th century Native Americans were perceived as an inconvenience by the European descendants and were persecuted as an inferior race. By allowing the Mohicans to have died out Cooper preserved them as a kind of legendary tribe who were somehow above all others because their values were similar to the white-skins. Uncas, it is explained, is
In truth the Mohegan tribe did ally themselves with the English and there was a real chief named Uncas, although he lived a century before the character in Cooper’s story. Evidently Cooper brought a number of elements together in writing
The Deerslayer
Bumppo also adopts the ethics of the aboriginal peoples of America, only hunting wildlife for what he needs and never wasting anything. In essence, he is at one with his environment, in marked contrast to the colonialists who are expanding New York like a manmade growth spreading across the land.
This first story sees Bumppo at odds with his mixed heritage. Both of his parents were white, yet he is culturally native. Other frontiersmen are not sympathetic to the plight of the Huron tribe who are besieging the colonialists in a bid to hold territory. They plan to invade the Huron camp and scalp their captives as proof of each killing they have made, but Bumppo is not party to this. When things go wrong, Bumppo helps to release some frontiersmen who have been captured. One of them is subsequently scalped by the Huron when they counterattack.