The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimoore Cooper is one of the most acclaimed and best-selling books about the American Frontier to be ever written. It is and was hailed as a masterpiece due to its more human characterizations of the Native American warriors and tribesman for that time period. The Last of the Mohicans is viewed as the first popular book that portrayed Native Americans in a more positive manner rather than as crude savages who were resolutely determined on killing ‘the white man’ and then proceeding to cutting of their scalp. Yet, are all of the descriptions in The Last of the Mohicans of Native Americans correct? Or were they blurred and magnified to fit within the basis of this romantic novel of the French and Indian War?
The Last of the Mohicans is set in 1757 near Lake George of upstate New York during the French and Indian War. The premise of this book is about the fall of Fort William Henry and how they affected a few of the people related to the Massacre of William Henry. The five main tribes of Native Americans that are portrayed in this book are the Delaware Indians, the Mohicans, the Mohawk, and the Iroquois. The former two groups and the latter two groups are shown in a stark contrast. The Delaware and the Mohicans are portrayed as peaceful, calm, and kind Native Americans. While the Mohawks, Iroquois, and Huron Native Americans along with being deceitful, are shown as bloodthirsty, and vengeful human beings.
While many people praise Cooper for inserting humanizing aspects of Native Americans in his narrative, many people forget to cite him for reducing the Mohawks, Iroquois, and Huron to a little more than cannibalistic fiends.
Cooper writes “More than 2,000 raving savages broke...
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... Americans, especially due to the prejudices present in that day. Magua was proven as a liar and was therefore distrusted, especially after he kidnapped Cora and Alice. The hate was intensified. This is another example of Cooper using unnatural discourse to further his story along.
The Last of the Mohicans is a great book and has its revolutionary aspects but in essence this book is similar to most of the historical books of that time period, not correctly researched. The characters are used purely for the author’s purpose with no certain reason to pinpoint why these were the characters chosen.
Bibliography
· The children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 by Bruce G. Trigger—accessed through books.google.com
· A Native American Encyclopedia: History , Culture, and Peoples by Barry M. Pritzker –Page 425 —accessed through books.google.com
O’Brien argues the multiple Indians who are put forth in histories as being the last of their tribe: Eunice Mahwee of the Pequots, Esther of the Royal Narragansetts. This phenomenon falsely narrates the disappearance of Indian people, being relegated to anonymity except for the “last of their kind.” These stories also discuss the purity of Indians, downplaying their current environment. Indians were only Indians if they had complete pure blood, one drop of anything other than their own tribe meant they were not Indians. The racist contradictions in this logic is pointed out by O’Brien. For whites, any claim to one “drop” of New England Puritan blood meant this person could claim to be a descendant of the Puritan Fathers. The children or grandchildren of the “last” Indians were not truly Indian because they did not grow up in a wigwam, or possess their native
Print. Waldman, Carl. " Sioux." Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Third Edition.
Zigmond, M. L. (1986). Kawaiisu. In W. C. Sturtevant, Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 11, pp. 398-411). Washington: Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data.
McClurken, J. M. (2009). Our people, our journey: the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
The Last of the Mohicans, released in 1993, is a story with much historical background as well as a very entertaining love story to catch the viewer’s eye. This movie is based on the historical event of the French and Indian War that went from 1754-1763. To give this story a more interesting twist, the director, Michael Mann, has added a love story between Hawkeye and Cora. Cora and her sister Alice are being escorted to their father, commander of Fort William Henry, when an attack by the Indians occurs. Daniel Day-Lewis, Hawkeye, comes to their rescue and helps bring them to their father. Hawkeye, along with his father (Chingachgook), and his brother (Uncas), try to help out her father but he will not take it into consideration. They are attacked and destroyed. All along this journey, Hawkeye and Cora fall in love. There have been a variety of responses to this film. Some critics very much enjoyed Mann’s work, while others had nothing good at all to say about it.
The original Huron settlement was located between Georgian Bay and Lake Simcoe in the southern part of Ontario (1). The tribe was discovered by the French in the year 1610 and the French described the group as the most prosperous native group they had discovered along the St. Lawrence River (1). As it turns out, The Huron actually called themselves Wendat, which means “Dwellers on a Peninsula” (12). The word Huron was given to the group by the French and because the word meant a boar or a hillbilly, the group was offended and did not adopt the name (12). Eventually the Huron were forced to sell their land by the US government in the 1800s. Today, the Huron have reserves in Kansas and Oklahoma as well as Quebec, Canada (Internet Research). Numerous connections could be made between the Huron and the topics we have talked about throughout the semester. The five connections that were talked about most in the book include: horticulture, religion and rituals, kinship and marriage practices, gender role ideol...
The Last of the Mohicans is a historical novel by James Fennimore Cooper. The story took place in 18th century North America during the French and Indian War, where a white man adopted by the last members of a dying tribe called the Mohicans unwittingly becomes the protector of the two daughters of a British colonel, who have been targeted by Magua, a sadistic and vengeful Huron warrior who has dedicated his life to destroying the girls ' father for a past injustice. The main characters in this story are Hawkeye and Magua- the hero and the villain. Hawkeye, the protagonist of the novel, goes by several names: Natty Bumppo, La Longue Carabine (The Long Rifle), the
Cooper, James F. The Last of the Mohicans. New ed. Vol. 1. New York: Stringer and
In his essay, “The Indians’ Old World,” Neal Salisbury examined a recent shift in the telling of Native American history in North America. Until recently, much of American history, as it pertains to Native Americans; either focused on the decimation of their societies or excluded them completely from the discussion (Salisbury 25). Salisbury also contends that American history did not simply begin with the arrival of Europeans. This event was an episode of a long path towards America’s development (Salisbury 25). In pre-colonial America, Native Americans were not primitive savages, rather a developing people that possessed extraordinary skill in agriculture, hunting, and building and exhibited elaborate cultural and religious structures.
The Cree people have a rich and diverse history. Through methods of written and oral teachings, a greater understanding of the Cree people and their history has become apparent. In the following, I will highlight portions of Cree history to establish an understanding of such a rich culture. As a guide, I will use ideas highlighted in Jim Kanepetew’s (n.d) teachings of “The Ten Treaty Sticks”. Underlying concepts from “The Ten Treaty Sticks” have implications on both past and current practices of the Cree people. Since a large portion of the final exam is a chronological list of happenings, I will examine and extend the teachings of “The Ten Treaty Sticks” and how these align with teachings throughout the course. Using “The Ten Treaty Sticks” as a guide, I
2. “Cherokee Culture and History.” Native Americans: Cherokee History and Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014. .
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
MacDougall, Brenda. One of the Family: Metis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2010.
Chingachgook is the chief of the Mohicans, and one of the last of his good tribe. They gas a formidable opponent in the Hurons, a tribe who would conduct war to maintain their supremacy. Uncas, Chingachgook’s son, fell in love with Cora, the daughter of Colonel Munro. Cora was given away to Magua, of another tribe, who believed they had the rights to her. Uncas pursued Magua and in a fight, one of Magua’s companions stabs Cora to death. Uncas is then killed in a fight. Magua is then shot dead by Hawkeye, Chingachgook’s close friend.{{This is a summary.}}{{In your introduction, include a brief summary, with the title and the author, and a thesis which address the prompt directly. Answer the question in the last sentence of your introduction.}}