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CATHERINE WINTER: On the Red Lake Chippewa Reservation in Northern Minnesota, Joyce Roy is the Head Investigator for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Roy believes there are people walking around the reservation who ought to be in prison. She says she knows of people who have abused children and received no punishment.

JOYCE ROY: And I get the comments from the community, well, why isn't so-and-so in prison? Look what he did type of thing. It's hard to answer these people when you feel with them, you know what they've gone through.

CATHERINE WINTER: Roy says the problem is not that there's more child abuse on Indian reservations but that there's a loophole in the law. On most reservations around the country and on Red Lake and Nett Lake in Minnesota, state criminal laws don't apply.

The federal government is responsible for prosecuting serious crimes under federal law. Federal law prohibits child sex abuse. But there is no federal law prohibiting physical abuse. So the only way to prosecute someone for physically abusing a child is to bring a charge of assault. US Attorney Tom Heffelfinger says the assault law can only be used on a narrow range of cases when a deadly weapon is used or when a victim suffers permanent injuries.

TOM HEFFELFINGER: In child abuse, more often than not, the injuries are broken bones, scarring, tissue injuries that do not amount to permanent protracted loss of a bodily function, for example. But it's a temporary and significant injury or a scarring injury. Therefore, the law has to be changed. Otherwise, we cannot provide protection to children who are under federal jurisdiction, not only on Indian reservations but also on military bases.

CATHERINE WINTER: Heffelfinger's office recently prosecuted a woman from Red Lake who had repeatedly burned her three-year-old daughter with a cigarette. Prosecutors argued that in the case of a three-year-old child, a cigarette was a deadly weapon and that the child had suffered permanent damage emotionally.

But Heffelfinger says they won the case only because the defense didn't make an issue of the law. He says it's hard to make most child abuse cases fit the law. If federal prosecutors won't take a case, the only other option is for tribal authorities to prosecute it in tribal court as a misdemeanor. Investigator Joyce Roy says she's never seen anyone get more than six months in jail for a misdemeanor. And the cases are hard to win.

JOYCE ROY: We charge them out. They're set for trial. But they ask for jury trial. And it's very difficult to get people that aren't related to anybody here. Some of these families are awfully big families. When they do get a jury, it just seems like there's always a not guilty.

CATHERINE WINTER: Tribal social service workers can put an abused child in foster care. But Roy says, if child abusers aren't punished, it sends a message to the community that it's OK to mistreat a child. Officials on many other reservations around the country say they have similar problems prosecuting abuse.

A few states have jurisdiction over some Indian reservations. But most reservations rely on the federal government for felony prosecutions. Bonnie Craig is Director of Native American Studies at the University of Montana and a former tribal judge from the Blackfeet Reservation.

BONNIE CRAIG: The message to the victim is that what happened to you doesn't matter and that it can continue with no penalizing effect on the perpetrator. And as a result, I think the broader implication is that it will create a tendency for people to be reluctant to report or to testify.

CATHERINE WINTER: Craig says, a change in the law would help. But child abuse would still be hard to prosecute. Many reservations are remote, making it difficult for federal investigators to arrive quickly and gather evidence. Witnesses may have to travel hundreds of miles from a reservation to the city to testify in federal court. US Attorney Tom Heffelfinger says the state and federal governments have neglected the residents of Indian reservations.

TOM HEFFELFINGER: When you see the level of services, the level of legal protection afforded to a non-Indian community, like the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, and then you compare that with the same services and legal protection afforded to residents of a closed reservation, you realize that we're not giving the same breaks to those people.

CATHERINE WINTER: Heffelfinger believes prosecution of child abusers should be paired with prevention efforts. Members of the Red Lake community and the tribal government are working on some new programs to try to stop child abuse before it happens.

SPEAKER 1: You guys, you have to keep dancing.

CATHERINE WINTER: A group of students from Red Lake High School is rehearsing the play Touch, which teaches children about abuse. The play has been adapted for the first time for an Indian audience.

SPEAKER 2: Naniboujou taught all creatures their assignments. But it is true that some humans still become confused or forget what their assignment is. And unlike the fox, who knows how to act like a fox, we must learn how to be safe in our world. That is why adults teach children about safety.

CATHERINE WINTER: Performances of the play will begin later this month. Community members are also trying to get a grant to build a safe house for abused women and children on the Red Lake Reservation. And this year, the federal assault law may be changed.

Minnesota Congress member Jim Ramstad has introduced a measure that would set a lower standard of injury in assault cases and make it easier to prosecute child abusers. I'm Catherine Winter, Mainstreet Radio.