The Chainbearer

The novel focuses mainly on issues of land ownership and the displacement of American Indians as the United States moves Westward. Also is the sense of expansion through the measuring and acquisition of land by civilization. The book title represents "the man who carries the chains in measuring the land, the man who helps civilization to grow from the wilderness, but who at the same time continues the chain of evil, increases the potentiality for corruption". The central position of the "Chainbearer" allows Cooper to deal with the cultural lack of understanding Native Americans had of European concepts of land ownership.