Washington » On just a single day this year on the Red Lake reservation in northern Minnesota, police and investigators received emergency calls about a suicide, a murder, three stabbings, two shootings and multiple incidents of domestic violence.

Federal statistics have shown American Indians are the victims of violent crime at more than twice the national rate, and the incidence of homicide and domestic violence is much higher than the national average.

The Obama administration announced Thursday a new effort to combat crime on reservations, where shortages of law enforcement personnel and federal dollars have led to lawless environments.

The top three Justice Department officials -- Attorney General Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden and Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli -- will travel to states with high Indian populations over the next two months to talk to tribal members and crime experts about what can be done.

"It translates into suffering in people's lives that just is unacceptable in this country," Ogden said. "We're really at kind of a crisis point."

Increased federal dollars will probably also be part of the equation, Ogden said.

"We have to look at whether we're doing enough and I think it's clear we're not," Ogden said. "I think we can devote more law enforcement agents. I think we can help in the training of law enforcement agents. We can have more prosecutors and I think we can provide more support to tribal institutions."

Two of Utah's federal prosecutors work full time on felonies in Indian country, said Brett Tolman, U.S. attorney for Utah. Attorneys in other criminal specializations work on relevant cases as needed, Tolman said.

"Protecting heritage as well as doing our part in prosecuting the felonies that occur on tribal land" are high priorities, Tolman said, citing a recent case against 23 Utahns and a Colorado couple accused of trafficking in Indian artifacts.

Among Utah's tribes, methamphetamine use is on the rise, Tolman said, and gangs are becoming more active.

"Child pornography issues, rape and other sexual assaults have become issues that we have to continually throw resources at," Tolman said.

Federal agents investigated six homicides on Utah's tribal lands in 2008, said FBI spokesman Juan Becerra.

Little is known about what exactly is happening on reservations or how the incidents are handled. Data has been sparse for decades and crime surveys rarely separate out tribal statistics. Ogden says better data collection is one of the department's priorities.

Tribes in Utah manage much of their own data tracking, Tolman said. Federal officers in recent years have tried to make felony data more specific for cases that occur on tribal land, Tolman added.

Tribune reporter Erin Alberty contributed to this story.