The Last of the Mohicans has been James Fenimore Cooper's most popular work. It has influenced popular opinion about American Indians and the frontier period of eastern American history. The romanticized images of the strong, fearless, and ever-resourceful frontiersman (i.e., Natty Bumppo), as well as the stoic, wise, and noble "red man" (i.e., Chingachgook), were notions derived from Cooper's characterizations more than from anywhere else.[26] The phrase, "the last of the Mohicans", has come to represent the sole survivor of a noble race or type.[27]
In the M*A*S*H book, film and television franchise, the character Hawkeye Pierce is given his nickname by his father, after Hawk-eye from The Last of the Mohicans.[28] A main character in the original novel and subsequent film adaptation, Hawkeye, as portrayed by Alan Alda, is the central character in the long-running TV series.
