The Prairie by James Fenimore Cooper

First published: 1827

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Adventure

Time of plot: 1804

Locale: Great Plains of the United States

Principal characters

• Natty “Trapper” Bumppo, an eighty-seven-year-old frontiersman
• Ishmael Bush, a squatter who is traveling with his possessions and family to the prairie
• Esther Bush, his burdened wife, and mother of their fourteen children
• Ellen Wade, niece of Esther’s deceased first husband
• Abiram White, Esther’s brother
• Obed Battius, a physician-naturalist
• Paul Hover, a bee hunter betrothed to Ellen
• Duncan Middleton, a U.S. Army captain
• Inez Middleton, his wife, and daughter of a wealthy Louisiana landowner
• Hard-Heart, a Pawnee chief, and Trapper’s adopted son

The Story:

Shortly after the time of the Louisiana Purchase, Ishmael Bush, his wife, Esther, and their children travel westward from the Mississippi River. Their wagon train includes their fourteen sons and daughters; Esther’s niece, Ellen Wade; Esther’s brother, Abiram White; and Dr. Obed Battius, a physician and naturalist. While searching for a place to camp one evening, the group meets old Trapper (Natty Bumppo) and his dog, Hector. The trapper directs them to a nearby stream for a campsite.

After night falls, Trapper discovers Ellen in a secret meeting with her lover, Paul Hover, a wandering bee hunter. A band of Sioux Indians captures the three, but they manage to escape. The raiders steal all the horses and cattle from Ishmael’s caravan. Unable to proceed across the prairie, the group occupies a naturally fortified hilltop shown to them by Trapper.

A week later, Hover, Trapper, and Battius gather around Trapper’s campsite. Soon, a young stranger who introduces himself as Captain Duncan Middleton of the U.S. Army, joins them. Middleton is the grandson of Trapper’s old friends, Major Duncan Heyward and Alice Munro-Heyward; Trapper had known the Heywards in the days of the French and Indian Wars. Middleton is looking for his wife, Inez, whom Abiram White, Esther’s brother, has been holding captive since shortly after her marriage. Paul, Trapper, and Battius agree to help Middleton rescue Inez.

Ishmael and his sons leave their camp to hunt buffalo. In the evening, they return with meat. However, Asa, the oldest son, is missing. In the morning, the entire family sets out to search for Asa. They find his dead body in a thicket; one of Trapper’s bullets had entered his back. The Bush family buries Asa and returns to camp, only to find that both Ellen and Inez are gone.

The young women, who have been rescued by Middleton and his friends, are making their escape across the prairie when a meeting with the Pawnee warrior Hard-Heart interrupts their journey. After the warrior gallops away on his horse, the travelers find themselves in the path of a stampeding herd of buffalo. At the last moment, the braying of Battius’s donkey saves the group from being trampled to death; the donkey’s strange cry had caused the herd to turn aside.

The band of Sioux that held Trapper, Paul, and Ellen captive continues pursuing the bison herd. The warriors now take Middleton’s party captive. About the same time, Ishmael and his sons, who are searching for Inez and Ellen, approach on foot. The Sioux remount and give horses to their captives so that they all can ride to Ishmael’s camp while Ishmael and his sons are away. During the Indian raid on the camp, Trapper helps his friends escape on horseback.

The escapees ride as far as possible before making camp for the night; in the morning, the runaways find that the Sioux have followed them and have set fire to the prairie to drive them into the open. Trapper rescues the fugitives by burning off the nearby prairie, thereby preventing the larger fire from reaching them.

As the deserters depart, they meet Hard-Heart again. From him, they learn that the Sioux and Ishmael’s family have joined forces to search for them. Because Hard-Heart and the little band have a common enemy in the Sioux, Hard-Heart agrees to take them to his Pawnee village for protection.

The fugitives decide to cross a nearby river. As they reach the far bank, the Sioux appear on the opposite shore. That night, the fugitives are still free, but a snowfall makes it impossible for them to escape without being tracked. The Sioux capture them and take them to the Sioux village. The captors place the women in the lodge of the Sioux chief and tightly bind Hard-Heart, Paul, and Middleton. Trapper, because of his age, is not bound, but he declines to leave his friends. Using Trapper as an interpreter, the Sioux chief asks Inez to be his wife. Ishmael asks the chief to give him Inez, Ellen, and Trapper as they had previously agreed. When the chief refuses, Ishmael departs angrily.

Many Sioux clamor to torture Hard-Heart to death, and a council convenes to decide Hard-Heart’s fate. An old warrior steps forward and declares that he wishes to make the Pawnee his adopted son, but Hard-Heart refuses to join the Sioux tribe. The Sioux begin to torture their captives, but Hard-Heart manages escape and joins a war party of his own Pawnee, who arrive on the scene.

Leaving the women to guard the prisoners, the Sioux men prepare to fight the Pawnee. The braves of the two tribes gather on the opposite banks of a river, but neither side dares to make the first move. Hard-Heart challenges the Sioux chief to single combat. Meanwhile, Trapper helps the rest of the captives to escape. Shortly after, however, Ishmael captures them once again. Hard-Heart prevails against the Sioux chief, and his warriors put the remaining Sioux warriors to flight in the subsequent battle.

The next morning, Ishmael holds a court of justice to deal with his captives. He realizes his mistake in carrying Inez away from her husband and allows the couple their freedom. He gives Ellen her choice of remaining with his family or going with Paul. She chooses to go with her lover. Ishmael gives Dr. Battius his freedom because he does not think that the scientist is worth the bother. Finally, Trapper comes up for judgment.

Ishmael still believes that Trapper shot and killed his son, Asa, but Trapper reveals that Abiram had fired the shot. Abiram confesses his crime and then faints. Ishmael is reluctant to pronounce judgment on his brother-in-law, but he believes it his duty to do so. That evening, he gives Abiram the choice of starving to death or hanging himself. Late that night, Ishmael and Esther return to find Abiram hanging. They bury him and continue on their way to the settlement.

Middleton, Paul, and the young women invite Trapper to return to the settlement with them; by remaining with them he would be taken care of in his last days. Trapper refuses their invitation and decides instead to remain in the Pawnee village with Hard-Heart.

One year later, Middleton’s duties as an Army officer bring him near the Pawnee village, where he visits Trapper. The old frontiersman appears near death, but Trapper revives sufficiently to greet his old friend. By sundown, however, Trapper seems to be breathing his last breaths. As the sun sinks beneath the horizon, he makes one last tremendous effort, rises to his feet with the help of his friends, and utters a loud and firm “here” before falling back dead into the arms of his friends.

Bibliography

Brotherston, Gordon. “The Prairie and Cooper’s Invention of the West.” In James Fenimore Cooper: New Critical Essays, edited by Robert Clark. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1986. Defines The Prairie as “the most distinctive if not the best written” of Cooper’s novels about American Indians. Explores the lasting historical and cultural images that Cooper helped create.

Franklin, Wayne. James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. A detailed and scholarly biography of Cooper. This 700-plus-page volume explores Cooper’s early years, from his birth in 1789 to 1826, the year before The Prairie was published.

Krauthammer, Anna. The Representation of the Savage in James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Focuses on Cooper’s (and Herman Melville’s) creations of American Indian, African American, and other non-European characters, including Natty Bumppo in The Prairie. Discusses how readers perceive these characters as “savages,” both noble and ignoble.

Newman, Russell T. The Gentleman in the Garden: The Influential Landscape in the Works of James Fenimore Cooper. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2003. Discusses the importance of landscape in Cooper’s novels, focusing on the land’s relation to social standing. A “a creative and insightful exploration of the pioneer aesthetic” of Cooper.

Person, Leland S., ed. A Historical Guide to James Fenimore Cooper. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Collection of essays, including a brief biography of Cooper by Wayne Franklin and a survey of Cooper scholarship and criticism. See particularly “Cooper’s Leatherstocking Conversations: Identity, Friendship, and Democracy in the New Nation” by Dana D. Nelson. Features an illustrated chronology of Cooper’s life and important nineteenth century events.

Rans, Geoffrey. Cooper’s Leather-Stocking Novels: A Secular Reading. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991. References in the section “The Uses of Memory” suggest how The Prairie employs selective memory of its past, particularly of its past injustices, to move forward.

Wegener, Signe O. James Fenimore Cooper Versus the Cult of Domesticity: Progressive Themes of Femininity and Family in the Novels. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2005. Examines Cooper’s reaction to and treatment of America’s cultural values, particularly those that shaped the private and public lives of individuals, between 1820 and 1860. Details Cooper’s inclusion of women as an integral part of his plot lines.

White, Craig. Student Companion to James Fenimore Cooper. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006. A guide written especially for students, covering Cooper’s life and career. Includes examination of The Prairie. Part of the Student Companions to Classic Writers series.