The film is set in 1757, the third year of war between England and France for the possession of the continent. The center of the story is the most notorious event of the French and Indian War; the s0-called 'massacre' of British troops, women and children by General Montcalm's Indian allies after the British surrender of Fort William Henry to the French on 9th August 1757.The Struggle between the French and English for control of North America became apparent in the late 1600s. The buffer between the two imperial powers was the presence of the five Nations of Iroquois who controlled almost all of what is now New York State. From West to East the tribes were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and the Mohawk; these five were joined by the Tuscarora to form six Nations in 1711.The film correctly portrays the Iroquois as ferocious warriors who practiced torture and covered their skins with bear grease and red ochre. The gathering of Indians in the temporary military camps of 1757 leads to a misrepresentation of the daily lives of northeastern Indian tribes. Neither the Iroquois, the Delaware, nor the Huron were nomadic hunter-warriors who only lived for battle. Iroquois tribes were fundamentally agricultural, and due to being inland people were less dependent upon British and French fur traders than were the Algonquin tribes.English settlement West and North from Albany and French from the West and South from Montreal made it hard for the Iroquois to preserve both their independence from White nations and the league among themselves. The Mohawks were allied to the British, the Northern tribe called the Hurons, not allied to the Iroquois Nation, became undeclared supporters of the French. For all Iroquois, the danger of white incursion upon Iroquois lands and culture had to be balanced against the immediate benefits of acquiring the white mans' goods, the iron axe, the iron plough, iron guns as much as alcohol and trinkets.Chingachgook ...
