In The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper, does Natty’s role as a frontiersman and pioneer mean that he is partially responsible for the expansion of civilization?

In The Pioneers, Natty, the huntsman, ostensibly represents the old ways of early frontier America, which are, in this story, presented as being in conflict with the new regime being established by the townspeople, who now have a judge and a set of enforceable rules: Natty is no longer able to simply hunt what he likes when he likes, and the townspeople are suspicious of him and his behavior, thinking that he surely must be concealing something from them. However, while he is set in opposition to the expansion of the new wave of civilization which the Judge represents, we can certainly argue that Natty and his kind have contributed to the expansion of civilization, of their own sort, across the US.
"Civilization" simply means "the society, culture, and way of life of a particular area." It is often used to refer more specifically to an advanced stage of social development, but in terms of establishing the early cultures and societies of postrevolutionary America, Natty and other pioneers and frontiersmen must be considered instrumental. Natty's relationship with the land and the Native Americans living on it is unique; it is a development from what preceded it, and is yet distinct from what was to come after.
Natty describes the civilization with which he was once accustomed:

The time has been when I have shot thirteen deer without counting the fa’ns standing in the door of my own hut; and for bear’s meat, if one wanted a ham or so, he had only to watch a-nights, and he could shoot one by moonlight, through the cracks of the logs.

He identifies several other tenets of America as he understands it, including that "might often makes right here." Natty's outfit helps us to understand how his form of civilization works and interacts with the native peoples: he wears "a shirt collar, made of the country check," "deer-skin moccassins . . . in the manner of the Indians," and he carries an ox-horn. In his manner of dress and approach to the land around him, Natty represents a stage of civilization that works in tandem with the one that existed here before it—and which has its own manners of dress, its own customs, and its own culture. Natty has taken part in "the old war," shaping his country in this fashion. He converses readily with the chief who calls himself "Great Snake" and is able to accommodate his own wants using the network he has established.
Theoretically, then, we can understand that a "civilization" properly takes root when there is a shift from a hunting way of life to an agrarian way. Natty and his kind were hunters, rather than farmers. However, we certainly can argue that they were able to—indeed, had to—establish and spread a form of civilization of their own, from which the later civilizations could be developed. They did not live in isolation but formed networks with each other in order to better themselves and their disparate communities. While their civilization did not reflect that of many modern societies, there are elements of it still at play in America today.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2275/2275-h/2275-h.htm