654:. The book contrasts Hard-heart and the Pawnee tribe—who were at peace with the white settlers—to the warlike Tetons. The Tetons are categorically described as cunning, crafty, deceitful, loathsome and dirty. Hard-heart is brave, fierce, and fights to protect his honor. He refuses to abandon his tribe, even if he loses his life for it. In contrast, Le Balafre once abandoned his tribe to become a Teton, thus saving his own life. In the end, Hard-heart is alive while Weucha and Mahtoree are dead.
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349:– The story's main protagonist. Never mentioned by name, we infer by references to other books that this is Natty Bumppo in his 87th (or 83rd) and final year. He is the wise, cunning mind that keeps the white settlers alive through repeated, dangerous situations. Captain Duncan Middleton's grandparents were his close friends.
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James Cooper (his mother's family name of
Fenimore was legally added in 1826) was born in Burlington, N.J., on Sept. 15, 1789, the eleventh of 12 children of William Cooper, a pioneering landowner and developer in New Jersey and New York. When James was 14 months old, his father moved the family to a
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Indian who survived the fire wrapped in a buffalo skin, and attempt to escape to his village. The Tetons capture them. Ishmael demands the trapper, Inez, and Ellen for helping the Tetons but is denied and turned away. Mahtoree intends to take Inez and Ellen for his new wives. Le
Balafre attempts to
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Although Cooper's
Indians are frequently stereotypical, so are his white characters. Despite sometimes referring prejudicially to Indians as subhuman, he still presents them in a complex light, a mixture of human and devilish characteristics. Amidst what Cooper describes as primitive or dirty, he
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The trapper, Paul, and
Middleton return to camp, find Inez whom Abiram and Ishmael had been keeping captive, and flee with her and Ellen. Ishmael chases them until the Tetons capture the Trapper and his crew. They escape the Tetons, and then Ishmael forms an alliance with the Indians. The Indians
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warrior, who helps Natty and
Middleton escape from their enemies and manages an amazing escape from certain death at the hands of the Tetons. He leads the final battle against the Tetons, killing Mahtoree and taking his scalp for a prize. He becomes the husband of Tachechana, Mahtoree's beautiful
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When Hard-heart's Pawnee warriors attack the Teton village, the trapper and his friends escape, only to be captured by
Ishmael. The trapper is accused of Asa's death until Abiram's guilt is discovered. Abiram is executed, and Ishmael's family returns east without Inez, Ellen, or the doctor.
559:. They meet the trapper (Natty Bumppo), who has left his home in New York State to find a place where he cannot hear the sound of people cutting down the forests. In the years between his other adventures and this novel, he tells us only that he has walked all the way to the
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That night, a band of Teton warriors steal all of
Ishmael's animals, stranding the immigrants. The doctor returns the next morning along with his donkey. The trapper helps the family relocate their wagons, including one with mysterious contents, to a nearby
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where they will be safer when the Tetons return. Middleton joins the group when he stumbles upon the trapper and Paul. Before they return to the butte, Ishmael and his family go looking for his eldest son, Asa, whom they find murdered.
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as a comfort to the dying frontiersman. His plaintive whine is the precursor of danger in the narrative. Middleton's dogs are related to Hector - descendants from a puppy that Natty sent as a gift to
Middleton's grandfather years
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415:– a physician-naturalist. He had joined himself to the Bush caravan as family physician, but he took the opportunity of going into the wilderness to make forays into the surrounding country to gather specimens of
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he both provides comic relief and a foil by which Cooper may compare the relative merits of Natty Bumppo's frontier practicality with theoretical knowledge. Obed and David are also similar to Hetty Hutter in
381:– Esther Bush's brother. Kidnapper of Inez de Certavallos-Middleton before story begins. Murders his nephew Asa Bush, but isn't discovered until nearly the end of the book. The book's most base character.
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vast tract of wilderness at the headwaters of the
Susquehanna River in New York State where, on a system of small land grants, he had established the village of Cooperstown at the foot of Otsego Lake.
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359:" because he lays claim to land without purchasing it from the government or the Indians. He is running from the law because he has aided in kidnapping Inez, Middleton's young wife.
387:– The beautiful, petite bride of Captain Duncan Uncas Middleton, daughter of a wealthy landowner in Louisiana. A devout Catholic, determined to convert her husband to her faith.
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365:– Ishmael's hard, careworn wife, mother of his 14 children (seven sons and seven daughters). Sometimes a woman of action, sometimes a woman of quiet complaints.
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widow, and protector and benefactor of her aged father, Le Balafré, and Natty Bumppo, who comes to love him like a son. His name links him to Natty's admired
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Middleton, Inez, Paul, and Ellen travel back to
Louisiana and Kentucky, respectively, while the trapper joins a Pawnee village located on a tributary of the
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613:. "The trapper" exemplifies frontiersmen like Daniel Boone in his quest for the wide open spaces of the American west. The Ishmael Bush party is an early
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traders and soldiers, he is the very aged Teton father-in-law of Mahtoree, father of Tachechana, who as a character corresponds to Tamenund in
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lauds their honor, hospitality, laws, etc. The Indians are more complex characters than most or any of the white characters in the book. In
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Here, in the "Manor House", later known as Otsego Hall, Cooper grew up, the privileged son of the "squire" of a primitive community.
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The Tetons are frequently referred to as looking like snakes or with other snake symbolism, such as having "forked tongues".
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and seen all the land between the coasts (a heroic feat, considering Lewis and Clark hadn't yet completed the same trek).
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as people held in awe and unmolested by the Native Americans because of their mystical qualities as
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attempt to recapture the trapper by surrounding them with a prairie fire, but the trapper lights a
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is indicated by the appearance of the grandson of Duncan and Alice Heyward, as well as the noble
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incorporates the historical phenomenon of the migration of settlers into the territories of the
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Proceedings of the Naval Court-Martial in the Case of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, &c.
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as well as the two which Cooper would not write for more than ten years. Continuity with
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This article is about the novel. For the 1947 film adaptation, see
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The History of the Navy of the United States of America
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chief Hard Heart, whose name is English for the French
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Homeward Bound: or The Chase: A Tale of the Sea
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and saves everyone. They meet up with Hard-heart, a
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Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey—Chestnut-Street
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516:– French for "the scarred one", so named by the
423:. Like the character of David the psalmodist in
1112:Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers
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704:, (New York: New American Library, 1964), 10.
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281:, the third novel written by him featuring
1333:Novels set in the Midwestern United States
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289:is the fifth and final installment of the
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880:The Headsman: The Abbaye des Vignerons
852:Autobiography of a Pocket-Handkerchief
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491:– A brave, handsome, and trustworthy
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58:adding citations to reliable sources
1126:New York: or The Towns of Manhattan
16:1827 novel by James Fenimore Cooper
1323:American novels adapted into films
680:The novel was adapted into a 1947
646:, one of Cooper's major themes in
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813:The Pathfinder, or The Inland Sea
295:, though it was published before
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1197:Gleanings in Europe: Switzerland
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1303:Novels by James Fenimore Cooper
45:needs additional citations for
1313:Novels set in the 19th century
1204:Gleanings in Europe: The Rhine
908:Jack Tier, or the Florida Reef
500:, whose nickname in French is
391:Captain Duncan Uncas Middleton
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1091:The Chronicles of Cooperstown
638:Treatment of Native Americans
617:. Novelist and social critic
555:, and during the time of the
385:Inez de Certavallos-Middleton
1225:Gleanings in Europe: England
950:The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea
530:– Youngest wife of Mahtoree.
1218:Gleanings in Europe: France
1165:Letter to General Lafayette
740:public domain audiobook at
551:, just two years after the
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1308:American historical novels
1232:Gleanings in Europe: Italy
1172:A Letter to His Countrymen
557:Lewis and Clark Expedition
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1020:The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish
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1133:Notions of the Americans
806:The Last of the Mohicans
644:The Last of the Mohicans
522:The Last of the Mohicans
425:The Last of the Mohicans
396:The Last of the Mohicans
318:The Last of the Mohicans
145:First edition title page
25:Prairie (disambiguation)
23:. For similar uses, see
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446:– Dr. Battius's trusty
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1179:The American Democrat
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603:Daniel Boone
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454:and hostile
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436:medicine men
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409:Dr. Obed Bat
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353:Ishmael Bush
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335:le Coeur-dur
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283:Natty Bumppo
273:(1827) is a
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133:The Prairie
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52:Please help
47:verification
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1098:The Eclipse
1083:Non-fiction
1066:Upside Down
827:The Prairie
737:The Prairie
720:The Prairie
670:The Prairie
648:The Prairie
615:wagon train
607:The Prairie
363:Esther Bush
347:The trapper
301:(1840) and
287:The Prairie
1292:Categories
957:Precaution
873:The Crater
528:Tachechana
514:Le Balafré
489:Hard Heart
403:Paul Hover
369:Ellen Wade
341:Characters
80:newspapers
1264:Wikiquote
1119:Ned Myers
1034:Wyandotté
978:Satanstoe
859:The Bravo
777:Works by
688:Footnotes
549:homestead
498:Delawares
466:taxidermy
229:Paperback
194:Publisher
742:LibriVox
642:As with
578:backfire
541:prairies
473:Mahtoree
357:squatter
331:Delaware
329:for the
327:nickname
225:Hardback
162:Language
1252:Commons
545:Midwest
543:of the
413:Battius
223:Print (
165:English
94:scholar
791:novels
582:Pawnee
508:Weucha
493:Pawnee
462:Hector
448:donkey
443:Asinus
323:Pawnee
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227:&
170:Series
152:Author
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569:butte
483:chief
480:Sioux
477:Teton
452:bison
421:fauna
417:flora
275:novel
236:Pages
180:Genre
101:JSTOR
87:books
535:Plot
469:ago.
419:and
373:ward
207:1827
73:news
723:at
277:by
56:by
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