Monday's fatalities were the second and third tribal members in the last week killed by deputies in gun battles.

There have been three other shootings on or near the reservation near San Jacinto since December.

The situation has deteriorated so much that the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said last week it would no longer enter the 6,000-acre reservation without a police escort.

"We received intelligence saying they would be phoning in false fire calls to draw us into the reservation," said Capt. Julie Hutchinson, an agency spokeswoman. "There is a general threat to uniformed personnel there. It's not everyone on the reservation. It's a faction that is out of control."

The Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a meeting Friday among tribal leaders, members of the Sheriff's Department and representatives from the office of Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands).

"We want to bring them together so they can have a working relationship and rebuild trust," said James Fletcher, Bureau of Indian Affairs superintendent for Southern California. "We want to settle this violence so we won't have people being shot to death."

Monday's incident began about 6:20 p.m. when a guardhouse at the reservation entrance came under rifle fire.

"When deputies arrived they were shot at in their car," said Sgt. Dean Spivacke of the Sheriff's Central Homicide Unit. "A helicopter was called in and was overhead when they were also shot at." The aircraft wasn't hit.

The attackers, armed with AR-15 and SKS assault rifles, fled into the rural reservation, which sits along a rugged belt of foothills near San Jacinto.

A sheriff's SWAT team was called in. After the team located the suspects, an hourlong gunfight ensued involving nine officers. The two tribal members, 36-year-old Joseph Arres and an unidentified woman, eventually were killed near a football field.

The bodies lay where they fell until the coroner's office retrieved them Tuesday. Distraught family members demanded that they be allowed to see the bodies and perform Native American rituals for them.

Not far away, the bells of St. Joseph Mission rang every 10 seconds for the dead.

The same bells rang last Thursday after Eli Morillo, 26, was killed during a gunfight with deputies that went on for hours and involved SWAT members, armored vehicles and deputies. Morillo's brother Peter was shot dead by police in 2002. Their mother, Rosemary Morillo, is a former tribal chairwoman.

In December, two deputies were shot while chasing suspects heading for the reservation. Their injuries were minor.

Authorities temporarily shut down the main road leading in and of the reservation Monday. Salgado spent the night outside the reservation's casino in his Escalade.

Early Tuesday he drove into the reservation, his indignation growing by the minute. He had been on the phone with the state attorney general's office, the U.S. attorney's office and lawyer Gloria Allred's office.

"We feel our civil rights have been violated," he said. "These guys are running around here with assault rifles like they are in Iraq. They shoot first and ask questions later."

Sheriff's officials said they reacted properly to a brazen attack not only on them but also on Soboba tribal members manning the guardhouse.