The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians has been awarded $363,000 in federal funding to improve public safety, serve victims of crime, combat violence against women and support youth programs, the Department of Justice announced Friday.

“The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians’ Department of Family and Community Services is indeed grateful to receive this much-needed US DOJ grant for our Tribal Victim Services Program,” said Tribal Chief Cyrus Ben in a news release. “We are making a concerted effort to combat domestic violence on the Choctaw Indian Reservation, and our strategic approach can use all of the fiscal and human resources that we can garner to eliminate this chronic problem. Innocent Tribal victims of family violence are in need of our direct and immediate assistance to foster their safety and healing, while our Tribal Government continues working to diminish the instances and effects of violent crime.”

“Violent crime and domestic abuse in American Indian and Alaska Native communities remain at unacceptably high levels, and they demand a response that is both clear and comprehensive,” said Attorney General William P. Barr in the news release.

The DOJ also announced awards and other programming totaling $167.2 million in a set-aside program to serve victims of crime. The awards are intended to help tribes develop, expand and improve services to victims by supporting programming and technical assistance.

The DOJ also provided $6.1 million to help tribes to comply with federal law on sex offender registration and notification, $1.7 million in separate funding to assist tribal youth and nearly $500,000 to support tribal research on missing and murdered indigenous women and children and other public safety-related topics.