Cooper, James

Circa thirty letters, most autograph, signed, to George LeRoy Brown, primarily concerning his term as acting Indian agent of Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota. Brown's dispute with writer and activist Charles Eastman is particularly well documented. Brown collected letters from Indian rights activists, jurists, military officers, and friends supporting his case and congratulating him on Eastman's resignation. Also present is a copy of his letter to T. J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, requesting Eastman's removal. Other letters and newspaper clippings document the 1893 killing of four white cowboys at Pine Ridge by a group of Sioux who were also at the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890. Correspondents include Richard Henry Pratt, founder of Carlisle Indian Industrial School; Herbert Welsh, founder of the Indian Rights Association; Byron M. Cutcheon, politician; William Hobart Hare, Episcopal bishop and missionary; and George Bliss Sanford, colonel in the United States Army. Other contents include correspondence and reports from Brown's time as professor of military science at Delaware College.