The high levels of violent crime on the nation's Indian reservations are not acceptable. Action is necessary.

The Obama administration last week announced a new effort to take on crime on the reservations, and said three top Justice Department officials would travel to states with large Indian populations over the "next two months" to talk to tribal members and crime experts about what can be done." While that's a well-intended strategy, the president would be better off sending the Justice trio to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Byron Dorgan.

The senator has been talking to people in Indian Country. He has been gathering facts. And Dorgan has co-sponsored, along with a bipartisan group of 17 members of the Senate, the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009 which makes some practical, common-sense changes in how law enforcement and criminal justice operates on reservations.

American Indians are the victims of violent crime at 2.5 times the national rate. FBI reports rates of those crimes doubled between 2005 and 2006, partly fueled by an epidemic of methamphetamine on reservations and heavy alcohol use.

Last summer, Operation Dakota Peacekeeper sent 20 additional law enforcement officers from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service to support tribal police on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and South Dakota. In four months, more than 1,000 arrests were made for juvenile offenses, drugs, crimes against children and domestic violence. In June, Dorgan and South Dakota Sen. John Thune asked the BIA to "replenish" the number of officers assigned to Standing Rock, returning to the levels of the 2008 surge.

Cause and effect - increase the presence of law enforcement officers and crime goes down. It's no long-term solution, but it works.

Dorgan also wants to fund an Indian Police Academy Satellite Training Program at UTTC, which takes a step towards developing more qualified law enforcement officers for Indian Country.

Long term is the Tribal Law and Order Act, which would:

* Do a better job of collecting crime data in Indian Country and break down some of the jurisdictional barriers to law enforcement.

* Provide technical assistance and training to tribal law enforcement officials regarding use of the National Criminal Information Center database.

* Establish the Office of Indian Country Crime in the Department of Justice to develop, enforce and administer federal criminal laws in Indian Country.

* Create mechanisms to hold federal agencies accountable for their responsibility on reservations.

* Increases the maximum sentence for tribal courts from one year to three years for a single offense.

* Costs $62 million over five years in new authorizations and $932 million in total authorizations in the same period.

With that kind of money at stake, Congress also needs to make sure there's strong participation, including financial, from the tribes in bolstering law enforcement on the reservations. And the Justice Department and BIA need to recommend adequate funding for law enforcement manpower on the reservations.

The Obama administration should support the Tribal Law and Order Act as a strong step toward righting wrongs on reservations. It has bipartisan support. It addresses existing barriers to law enforcement on reservations. It has input from the tribes. And it's almost shovel ready.