At the request of settler boss Miles Forman, Natty Bumppo leads his trek to Michilimackinac, accompanied by Chingachgook. The group of settlers includes the criminal Bush family. After a few days, the wagon trail meets the Pawnee Indian tribe, whose chief Weucha knows Natty and by whom the settlers are warmly received. On the onward journey, the Bush sons veer off to seemingly hunt but sell the Sioux weapons they had stolen from a fort before leaving. On the way back to the trek they are surprised by two hunting Pawnees. In the following fight, one of the Bush sons is killed. The archer is immediately shot, and the other Indian is supposed to be lynched in the camp of the whites. Chingachgook, however, cuts the rope with a bullet. Later, Father Ismael Bush incites the peaceful Pawnees and Sioux against each other by having a Sioux killed and leading suspicion to the Pawnees. The Sioux attack and destroy the Pawnee village.

The Prairie is set at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. Hoping to find their destiny in the new territory, the Bush Family heads southward in a covered wagon. Sharing the family's numerous dangers and hardships are Ellen Wade (Lenore Aubert), sole survivor of an Indian attack, and army mapmaker Paul Hover (Alan Baxter). Cousins Abiram (Russ Vincent) and Asa (Jack Mitchum) duke it out over Ellen's affections

A family-oriented adaption of James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans." As the French-Indian War rages across the untamed territory of the Great Northwest, the embattled wilderness gives birth to a legend -- the proud legend of "The Last of the Red Men." August, 1757, General Montcalm and his Iroquois alalies are on the war path -- and General Munro fears for the lives of his children as they travel to join him at Fort William Henry. Although Munro dispatches a letter urging them to take refuge at Fort Edward until the road is safe, an Iroquois scout intercepts the warning. So Major Duncan Hayward is unaware of the danger as he escorts Alice Munro, her sister Cora, and her young brother Davy from the sanctuary of the fort. When their guide Magua, a vengeful Iroquois played by Buster Crabbe, betrays them, only one man can save the travelers from his savage trap.