Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-15
AGENT JIM COOPER.
HOW HE MADE THE CHEYENNE 1N-
 DlANs RESPECT HIM.

He Started Out to Get Two HIurderers
 and Refused to Quail Before 400 War
 riors and n Like Number of Squaws-He
 Carried Through His Programme Too.
 A tall, keen eyed, square shouldered sandy haired man, with a countenance that bespoke quiet and reserved nature, strollod out of tho Hotel Lawrence and walked slowly up E stroet toward News paper row. As ho 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 isi" inquired the military man. "Nos Well, that's ex- Special Agent Cooper of the Indian office, Everybody in the far west knows Jim Cooper He has nerve enough to supply whole family of mouptain lions and have enough left to equip several companies of hard riding Indian fighters. During the stormy times nt Pine Ridge agency several years ago Cooper was Q strong factor in settling matters with tho Indians, being present thcrc as a civilian representative of the government. His fame had preceded him to Pine Ridge from the Tongue river reservation of the northern Choyennes, up in Montana, where he followed career that was full of exciting adventures One incident thGt may give you some idea as to tho character of the man occurred up on tho Tongue river reservation in the lat ter part of tho eighties, when Cooper was temporarily acting as the agent there. Two Indian boys, as young unmarried h. dians are called, about 19 or go years of age, respectively, had murdered white man.
 Cooper called the Cheyennes together, aud they numbered about 4a0 warriors at that time and equally AS many squaws, who arc pretty near as good as warriors when it comes to ructon, md told them that tho boys would havo to be brought in and delivered up to answer for their crimo. Tho 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 tallo 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 hc wanted was tho boys, and that he wanted them brought in without any further palavcring or subterfuge or delay Tho father of one of the boys grew very indignant at Cooper's determined stand and said that the boys would como in all right, but that Cooper was too big a coward to moot them. This was tho In dinn way of challenging Cooper to fight. He never winccd, but got mad in turn. Ho told the gathering that the wholo Chcy- emo tribe couldn't scare him, and that he proposed to get thoso boys in spite of all of them and see that justice was done and dared tho father to let the murderers know what ho said. Then ho rammod n few handfuls of ammunition into his pocket, took up his rifle and started out
 "The Chcyennos ranged themselves round on the bluffs and waited for the fun to begin, ready to take hand in an in stant, if necessary. Cooper knew that if he showed the slightest signs of nervous ness or fear tho Indians would make short work of him, burn everything in sight and go cavorting off the reservation. But he grew mighty lonesome, for all the white employees of tho reservation had become scared and gono to hiding. He called on tho six or seven Indian police that wore on duty at tho 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 canlped down on tho Lamo Deer. Pretty soon Cooper saw couple of Chey- ennes in full war paint and regalia riding like mad down the trail toward the agcn- cy. They were the boys who had murdered the old man. As they camc within range the ngont raised his rifle and plugged ono of them so good and hard that he rolled of his pony and gave up the ghost with out single kick.
 "Tho other ono began circliDg around and around for little while, ns Indians do, getting ready for Q rush, and Cooper awaited his opportunity to get good shot at ,.-bor bO 1rv nm rod Thon came tho strangcst part of tho pro coeding. That young Indian charged di- rectly at the limo of United States soldiers and went right through it, wounding four horses us he did so. But when ho had gono through somebody whrled that troop around, and tho result was that in less than threo wags of shccps tail MT h. dian boy was ns full of holes as any piece of honeycomb you ever saw in your life. There was no moro trouble at tho Tongue river reservation while Cooper was there, and the Cheyonnes 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 tho very same who were taken down to Indian Territory many years ngo and escaped and were not oyorhauled or stopped until they had gone north to with in 30 or 60 miles of Pine Ridge, and tho government didn't try to get them to go back my more They are fierce to degree and the hest fighters that live today, but still they arc upright in their dealings, and the character of their lives may be ap- preciatcd when tho fact is known that there is not n woman among the northern Cbcyennes who ia not perfectly virtuous" Washington Star.