more dangerous assignment: the suppression of liquor traffic on Indian reservations.

His first destination was the Yankton Indian Reservation in southeastern South Dakota. Wearing his Western duds with twin pistols on his hips, he attacked liquor traffic there with the same energy and fearlessness he had displayed in Nebraska. Within months the superintendent of the reservation reported to superiors in Washington: “I wish to commend Mr. Hart in highest terms for his fearless and untiring efforts to bring these liquor peddlers and moonshiners to justice. …This man Hart is a go-getter.”

In his early years on the job Hart worked hard to gain the respect and confidence of the reservation Indians, studying their customs and various languages. He became especially proficient in the Lakota and Omaha dialects. Tribal leaders, inrecognition of his Wild West attire and the low-slung twin six-shooters he often wore, bestowed on him the sobriquet “Two-Gun.” Newspapers reporting his exploits jumped on the colorful nom de guerre, and the handle “Two-Gun” Hart remained with him the rest of his life. (A member of the Oglala tribe in South Dakota recalled that some reservation Indians gave Hart another name after he once hid among a group of Oglala children before leaping out with drawn guns to arrest suspected bootleggers, startling suspects and children alike: Soiko, a name translating roughly to “big hairy boogie man.”)

But beginning in 1923 a series of incidents reflected badly on the reputation of Two-Gun Hart. That fall Hart received information that a Nebraska bootlegger named John Haaker was selling booze to