There are few people for whom the phrase "last of the Mohicans" does not conjure up memories and associations--childhood games, films, TV programs. Yet most who profess acquaintance with Cooper's title actually have never read his book. The characters--Hawkeye and his Mohican friends Chingachgook and Uncas--owe more to the media than to Cooper's text for their popularity. But they have become familiar icons identified with the colonizing of the northeastern...