Training deputies to be more culturally sensitive is one element of an agreement between the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians and the Riverside County Sheriff's Department signed today.

In a mid-morning ceremony marked by much camaraderie, tribal leader Robert Salgado and Sheriff Stanley Sniff agreed to listen to each other's concerns.

"I think, this is a start in the communications,'' Salgado said, holding a sacred eagle feather and standing with Sniff and James Fletcher, superintendent of the Southern California Agency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Sniff appointed Lt. Patty Knudson from the Hemet substation as the department's liaison to the tribe.

Knudson will be the one to reach tribal members in the event of a situation necessitating sheriff's deputies' presence on the reservation.

Under the agreement, the tribe will set up a command post to interact with sheriff's officials during such investigations.

The agreement also calls for sheriff's deputies to receive cultural sensitivity training and for tribal police to attend citizens' peace academies, where they will learn more about law enforcement.

Tribal members and sheriff's officials also will take part in "table-top exercises,'' outlining scenarios in which deputies would have to come onto reservation land and how to lessen the impact such cases could have on tribal casino operations.

The tribal council agreed to encourage residents to put addresses on their homes in order to make it easier for deputies to contact them if needed.

The Soboba have said they want deputies to show respect for the tribe's sovereignty and ancient land rights.

The sheriff's department has maintained that deputies have the right to go onto the reservation as needed.

Salgado on the other hand, stressed the sovereignty of the land and made it clear he did not believe sheriff's deputies have carte blanche to drive all over the reservation.

Sniff said a guard in a shack would not keep a deputy out but added that most of the time, deputies don't go on the reservation except in a response to calls or on a pursuit or during an investigation.

The agreement follows a series of meetings called to address conflicts resulting from escalating violence on the reservation.

Two shootouts in May resulted in deputies killing two men and a woman who had allegedly shot at deputies. The death of the three prompted tribal leader Robert Salgado to liken the Riverside County Sheriff's Department to the 7th Cavalry under Gen. George Armstrong Custer.