Feds say gangs spreading through Indian reservations
Story-Date: 01:26 p.m. PST Wednesday, September 17, 1997

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Feds say gangs spreading through Indian reservations


By Philip Brasher
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Street gangs are spreading to the nation's Indian
reservations, often overwhelming tribal police and courts, federal law
enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Studies indicate the number of gangs has more than doubled since 1994, and
the FBI has reported a major increase in violent crime linked to gang
activity, said Kevin Di Gregory, a top official in the Justice Department's
criminal division.

He told the Senate Judiciary and Indian Affairs committees Wednesday that
the "emergence of gangs in Indian country strains already limited tribal
law enforcement resources and threatens the safety and security of many
tribal communities."

The problem appears particularly acute in Arizona. The Navajo Nation
reports 55 gangs with 900 members, and the Gila River Indian Community says
it has 20.

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, a small tribe near Phoenix,
estimates it has 19 gangs, about one for every 300 tribal members on the
reservation.

This year, five members of the reservation's East Side Crips Rolling
Thirties gang were convicted of murder and other offenses under a federal
organized-crime law.

"Our police departments are outmanned and out-gunned," said Ivan Makil,
president of the Salt River tribe. "Even the technology used by the gangs
is more sophisticated than our police have. That's a fact."

Surveys have found significant gang activity on numerous other
reservations, particularly those close to cities, including Seattle; Tulsa,
Okla.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Rapid City, S.D., said Charles Rinkevich,
director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

Several reservations "are at a crisis level," said Rinkevich. "Parks and
schools are dominated by gangs, the community is living in fear of gangs,
there is an increase in truancy-dropouts and crime and the police are
overburdened."

The rise in gang activity correlates to a sharp increase in violent crime
overall on reservations. The homicide rate on Indian lands has soared 87
percent in the past five years, even as it has declined nationwide by 22
percent.

President Clinton recently ordered Interior and Justice officials
to meet with tribal leaders and recommend ways to deal with the problem.

A study by the Bureau of Indian Affairs this year estimated there are 375
Indian gangs with 4,650 members, up from 181 gangs in 1994.

Meanwhile, the number of Indian juveniles jailed in federal prisons for
serious offenses has nearly doubled from 78 in 1994 to 143 this year.

Indian gangs take names similar to national gangs such as the Crips and
Bloods, but they often are less coordinated than their urban counterparts
and less interested in robbery and other moneymaking crimes, said Di
Gregory, a deputy assistant attorney general.

Part of the reason for the rise in gang activity is the lack of police,
social services and detention facilities for juvenile offenders, he said.
Without proper law enforcement, Indian youth feel "they can commit crimes
with impunity," he said.



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