–regarded as his masterpiece
The “last of the Mohicans” is Uncas, son of the last chief of the Mohican tribe. The Mohicans are allied with the French against the British in the French and Indian War (a.k.a. the Seven Years War) in 1757.
James Fenimore Cooper himself was born and bred in the NJ–NY area. (b. 1789; d. 1851) He was a Navy midshipman before pursuing writing.
Cooper’s seafaring series Leartherstocking Tales features frontiersman Natty Bumppo.