The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-03-01
miscellaneous.
AGENT JIM COOPER.
HOW HE MADE THE CHEYENNE IN
DAMS RESPECT HIM.
He Started Out to Get Two Murderers
and Refused to Quail Before 400 War
riors and q Like Number of Squaws-He

and Refused to Quail Before 400 War
riors and q Like Number of squaws-He
Carried Through His Programme Too.
A tall, keen eyed square shouldered,
sandy haired man, with a countenance
that bespoke o quiet and reserved nature,
stroIled out of the Hotel Lawrence and
walked slowly up z street toward News
paper row. AS he passed the Press club
an army officer stepped forward and shook
hands with him cordially and then re-
joined his companions.
do you know who that is?" inquired
the military man. Nor Well, that's ex-
Special Agent Cooper of the Indian office.
Every body in the far west knows Jim
Cooper. He has nerve enough to supply a
whole family of mountain lions and have
enough left to equip several companies of
hard riding Indian fighters. During tho
stormy times at Pine Ridge agency several
years ago Cooper was a strong factor in
settling matters with the Indians, being
present there as civilian representative
of the government. His fame had preceded
him to Pine Ridge from the Tongue river
reservation of the northern Cheyennes, up
in Montana, where he followed a career
that was full of exciting adventures One
incident that. may give you some idea as
to the character of the man occurred up
ON the Tongue river reservation in the lat
ter part of the eighties, when Cooper was
temporarily acting as the agent there,
Two Indian boys, as young unmarried In
dians are called, about 10 or 90 years of
age, respectively, had murdered a white
man.
Cooper called the Cheyennes together,
and they numbered about 400 warriors at
that time and equally as many squaws,
who are pretty near as good as warriors
when it comes to a ruction, and told them
that the boys would have to be brought in
and delivered up to answer for their crime.
The Indians said they didn't know where
the boys were, and Cooper very plainly
told them that they were lying. Then
they asked him how many ponies he would
take to let up on the prosecution of the
criminals, and Cooper said that he would
not listen to any such talk as that, but
that what he wanted was the boys, and
that he wanted them brought in without
any further palavering or subterfuge or
delay. The father of one of the boys grew
very indignant at Coopers determined
stand and said that the boys would come
in all right, but that Cooper was too big
q coward to meet them. This was the In
dian way of challenging Cooper to fight.
He never WINGED, but got mad in turn.
He told the gathering that the whole Chey-
cnne tribe couldn't scare him, and that he
proposed to get those boys in spite of all of
them and see that justice was done and
dared the father to let the murderers
know what he said. Then he rammed a
few handfuls of ammunition into his
pocket, took up his rifle and started out.
The Cheyennes ranged themselves
round ON the bluffs and waited for the fun
to begin, ready to take q hand in an in
slant, If necessary. Cooper knew that if
he showed the slightest signs of nervous
ness or fear the Indians would make
short work of him, burn everything in
sight and 60 cavorting off the reservation.
But he grew mighty lonesome, for all the
white employees of the reservation had
become scared and gone to hiding. He
called on the six or seven Indian police
that were on duty at the reservation to
stand by him, however, and took the pre-
caution to. send one of them after a cavalry
troop, think it was Troop A of the First,
that was camped down OIL the Lame Deer.
Pretty soon Cooper saw couple of Chey-
ennes in full war paint and regalia riding
like mad down the trail toward the agen-
cy. They were the boys who had murdered
the old man. AS they came within range
the agent raised his rifle and plugged one
Of them so good and hard that he rolled
off his pony and gave up the ghost with
out single kick.
THE other one began circling around
and around for little while, as Indians
do, getting ready for a rush, and Cooper
awaited his opportunity to get good shot
| at him, when the cavalry troop appeared.
Then came the strangest part of the pro,
ceeding. That young Indian charged d.
rectly at the line of United States soldiers
| and went right through it, wounding four
horses as he did so. But when he had
gone through somebody whirled that troop
around, and the result was that in less
than three wags of a sleeps tail Mr.. In
dian boy was as full of holes as any piece
of honeycomb you ever saw in your life.
There was no more trouble 1T the Tongue
river reservation while Cooper was there,
and the Cheyennes respected him.
You mustn't imagine from this that
the northern Cheyenne is a weak specimen
Of the Indian. Those fellows at Tongue
river were the very same who were taken
down to Indian Territory many years ago
and escaped and were not overhauled or
stopped until they had gone north to with
in 80 or 80 miles of Pine Ridge, and the
government didn't try to get them to go
| back any more. They are fierce to degree
and the best fighters that live today, but
still they are upright in their dealings,
and the character of their lives may be ap-
prociated when tho fact Is known that
there is not woman among the northern
Cheyennes who is not perfectly virtuous
Washington Star.