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tween fiscal years 2009 and 2012, according to a DOJ report obtained by The Associated Press.
• "They've taken their responsibility much more seriously than before," said Brent Leonhard, an attorney with Umatilla tribe in Oregon.
• The report scheduled for release later Thursday marks the first look at government investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands. It comes as a result of the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, which requires the Justice Department to publicly release such figures.
• Justice officials acknowledge that their work is far from done, but they say the numbers demonstrate the government's commitment to combating violent crime on reservations where rates are higher than the national average.
• The report also shows that nearly 6,000 Indian reservation cases were referred to the federal government between calendar years 2011 and 2012. Arizona, home to the nation's largest American Indian reservation, had the highest number with more than 2,000, followed by South Dakota with nearly 1,000 and Montana with more than 500.
• Of the 5,985 cases referred from reservations across the country over the two years, about two-thirds led to convictions, while about one-third were declined for prosecution.
• "It shows that we're walking the talk at the Department of Justice," said Tim Purdon, U.S. attorney in North Dakota.
• Purdon leads a subcommittee that reports to Attorney General Eric Holder on American Indian issues. He said federal officials "want to improve public safety" and added that they are working to "remove those most dangerous predators, the most dangerous criminals from Indian Country."
• The federal government and tribes have concurrent jurisdiction in crimes where the suspect and victim are both American Indian, but federal prosecutions carry much stiffer penalties. Among recent U.S. government prosecutions:
• -- A man was found guilty of sexually abusing a teenager he met while working as a counselor at a summer camp on the Rocky Boy's reservation in Montana. He was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
• -- A woman on the Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota was convicted of beating her 4-year-old son with a plastic clothes hanger. She was sentenced to seven years in prison.
• -- A man was sent to prison for 10 years for kicking the woman who was pregnant with his child on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. The unborn child died after suffering a skull fracture and other injuries.

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