SAN JACINTO – Leaders of Southern California's Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department signed a federal mediation agreement Monday designed to improve communication and ease tension between the two parties.

The agreement, brokered over the past six weeks by the U.S. Department of Justice's community relations service, comes after three people were killed on the reservation in gunbattles with deputies.

The most recent shootings in May led Tribal Chairman Robert Salgado to accuse deputies of coming to the reservation to “blow people away” and to refer to the local sheriff's station commander as “General Custer.”

The tribe also complained that deputies sealed access to the reservation after the last shooting, leaving tribal members stranded outside the gates.

The agreement calls for better communication and planning between the tribe and deputies, including identifying specific points of contact during emergencies and establishing a reverse 911 system for reservation residents.

Also included in the agreement are plans for deputy training on Soboba history and culture, as well as tribal participation in the Sheriff Department's citizen academy and the posting of visible street numbers on tribal members' homes.

On May 13, deputies killed a man and woman in a long gunbattle after the pair opened fire with assault rifles on a tribal guard station.

The week before, deputies killed a man who opened fire on them on the reservation. That man's brother died in a gunfight with deputies in nearby Valle Vista in 2002. They were sons of a former tribal chairwoman.

The Department of Justice's community relations service helps communities resolve tensions tied to disputes that involve race, national origin or color. The federal agreement is voluntary and does not admit wrongdoing by any party.