U.S. backs Indian land suit against New York state Story-Date: 12:13 a.m. PST Saturday , March 21, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------ U.S. backs Indian land suit against New York state WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government Friday joined a claim by Indians suing New York state for allegedly stealing land from their ancestors to make sure that a court hears the case, the Justice Department said. The suit, filed by the Seneca Nation and the Tonawanda Band of Senecas in 1993, was in danger of being dismissed because of a 1997 Supreme Court ruling that Indian tribes may not bring land claims against state officials. But the ruling does not apply to the federal government, which may sue states in federal court, the Justice Department said. "The Seneca Nation has an historical and federally protected interest in this land," said Lois Schiffer, assistant attorney general in charge of the department's environment division. "New York state violated federal law when it purchased the land without congressional approval in the early 19th century. It is time to right this wrong," she said. According to papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, New York state bought land from the Senecas in 1815 without the consent of Congress. A 1790 federal statute prohibits the purchase of land from Indian tribes without such consent. The suit involves a claim for approximately 18 Niagara River islands totaling approximately 18,000 acres. The United States is not joining a claim in the Senecas' suit asserting that a 300-acre easement for Interstate 90 across the Cattaraugus Reservation, near Buffalo, is invalid because it was not approved by Congress. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said, "Although we are intervening and are willing to litigate the case, we are also willing to engage in serious settlement discussions with the state and the Senecas." Similar Indian land claims in other states have been resolved through negotiation, the Justice Department said. In a separate development, officials in Wildwood, New Jersey, said Friday an Oklahoma Indian tribe that hopes to build a casino in the resort city had sued it under the same 18th-century federal law. Papers filed in federal court Thursday claim white settlers failed to get congressional approval when they took the land on which Wildwood now stands from ancestors of the Delaware of Western Oklahoma. The Indians say they are descended from the Lenni-Lenape Indians, who lived in the Mid-Atlantic region well into the 18th century and were known to early settlers as the Delaware. The tribe also could use the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in an effort to strengthen its bid for a casino. Wildwood is a popular summertime resort located along the Atlantic coast about 35 miles southwest of New Jersey's gambling capital, Atlantic City. Officials said the Wildwood City Commission voted unanimously Thursday to negotiate a settlement with the Indians. In 1995 local residents voted in a referendum to give them land for a casino. But the officials said any deal could be opposed by New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who wants casino gambling confined to Atlantic City, as dictated by the state constitution. REUTERS ------------------------------------------------------------