Bob Pease didn't want to go. When told he had to retire from his job as a special agent for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he had other ideas.

��No. Wait a minute,� I said, �I don�t want to retire,�� Pease, whose mother was Crow and whose father was Rosebud Sioux, tells The Billings Gazette. �I was pretty bummed out, really quite awhile."

But after 35 years in law enforcement, 20 of them with the BIA, Pease eventually came around. "As time went on, talking to different ones, I�m kind of looking forward to it. I got a chance to look at the whole picture.� he says.

That picture includes witnessing some of the most violent crimes committed. He's served on reservations in Arizona and Montana and has encountered gang violence, substance abuse and other problems. The way out, he says, is economic development.

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Retired for duty: BIA agent sees tragedy, triumph during 35-year career (The Billings Gazette 9/9)