John Cooper Oral History Transcript

John Cooper talks about his early life growing up in San Bernardino, California on a citrus fruit farm, and how he joined the military after graduating from college. He served two tours in Vietnam with the In-Shore Undersea Warfare Group, US Navy.  His major in college was Criminology and that led him to a Criminal Investigative job in the Navy after his Vietnam tours. After his time in the military, he applied for a special agent position with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Law Enforcement division. He was hired and went to work in North Dakota. There he worked with the Division of Enforcement on a variety of things ranging from illegal fur trade involving Canada lynx to polar bears along the US / Canadian border. He also helped train and coordinate law enforcement issues with local wardens, Tribal Officers and Refuge officers on the ways they could uphold their own law enforcement policies on the refuge without having to always call on the agents. He also helped train Tribal Officers and institute Game Codes enforced by the respective Tribes.  As he continued his work, he became interested in Tribal and Native American Law related to wildlife resources and conducted a course at the USFWS Special Agent Law Enforcement School.  John retired from the Fish and Wildlife Service in January 1995 to work for South Dakota Governor Janklow as the Secretary for Game, Fish and Parks. He served in that capacity for 12 years under two Governors and retired in 2007.