I just finished reading this book myself and enjoyed it very much. I have a few thoughts that I hope will help you.
James Fennimore Cooper writes in a style that is vaguely descriptive in most of this book, which does make it difficult to follow. I found that taking the time to reread sentences was helpful in certain cases, and in others it didn't help at all.
In places where I had difficulty seeing the situation or landscape that he was describing, I found that you have to picture the first thing that comes to mind until he says something contrary to that picture. I then would take what he said and add it to what I was already perceiving in order to round out the picture or thought. While there is generally something to be learned from most every book, I didn't see it as a "specific information", "history", "expose" etc. I went into this book looking for one of these things, but about half way through I realized that this is not anything like I thought it would be, it's just a historical novel. Not to be derrogatory or demeaning, but it's just a classic novel with a touching story line, deep characters and unfiltered adventure. In my opinion the overall message that was communicated was the clash between three drastically separate races of people, and the effect that the colonists had on the Native Americans. They brought in all of these things that were foreign to them and introduced concepts that they didn't understand, taking advantage of their naivete. The book is very forthright and factual in laying things out. It isn't a descriptive or discussion-based style in regards to morals, but they are definitely there if you dig for them.
I hope that helps.
Reagan, 18 on my mom's forum account