PEACH SPRINGS, Ariz. — The loneliest and scariest moment in Oliver Homer's life came at one of the most beautiful places in the world--the floor of the Grand Canyon. He lay pinned to the ground by three angry and drunken Havasupai Indian youths he had just sprayed with Mace, and backup help--if he could even get it--was several hours away.
"I thought, 'If I lose this fight, it's the end for me,' " recalled Homer, a Navajo member of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' police force in this Haulapai Indian reservation town south of Grand Canyon National Park. "If I would have been hurt, no one could have helped me."
As it happened, Homer was able to pull out his gun and get away from the youths.
But Homer's predicament that June night is emblematic of the factors that contribute to what many officials say is a growing law enforcement crisis in Indian communities nationwide. The 500 Havasupai who live on the canyon floor are so remote they are accessible only by a three-hour horseback ride--and Homer was the only police officer on duty in the midst of increasingly hostile and violent youth gangs on the reservation.
Although violent crime has been declining nationally for several years, it has been on the rise in Indian Country. The homicide rate on reservations, for example, rose 87% between 1992 and 1996; in the same period, it dropped 22% nationwide, according to a federal report. Many of the violent crimes involve the use of drugs or alcohol.
At the same time, police service on Indian lands has been steadily shrinking under relentless budget-cutting in Congress. While the FBI's Uniform Crime Report statistics show 2.9 police officers per 1,000 citizens in non-Indian communities with populations less than 10,000, the ratio in Indian Country is 1.3 officers per 1,000 citizens.
There are 1,600 BIA policemen and uniformed tribal officers patrolling 56 million acres of Indian lands in the lower 48 states, protecting more than 1.4 million residents on about 300 reservations. By contrast, 3,600 police officers serve 540,000 residents in the District of Columbia.
Tribal leaders and senior BIA officials say the situation will worsen if the BIA's $82-million law enforcement budget is not substantially increased.
Kevin Gover, assistant secretary for Indian affairs, told Congress, "Just about any person who lives on the many Indian reservations will verify that safety for their families, including their own homes, is a daily worry."
