The governor's call came less than two weeks after U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled against the Senecas, deciding they do not own the disputed islands in the Niagara River in a case that has raged on for a decade.

Whether the U.S. Justice Department appeals, the Senecas are already making moves to appeal Arcara's decision, lawyers said Monday.

The time has come "to put this contentious litigation behind us and focus on developing a productive, mutually beneficial and long-term relationship between the state and the Senecas," Pataki said in a letter Monday to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft.

The request is significant because of Pataki's ties with the Bush administration and because the Justice Department has previously relaxed its position on other land claim matters following intervention by the state.

The Justice Department intervened in the Seneca land claim in 1998 under former President Bill Clinton, a move Pataki said Monday "represented a complete reversal of the position it had taken in defending itself against claims brought by the Senecas before the Indian Claims Commission."

Pataki noted that the federal government in that proceeding decided the Senecas had no property interest in the Niagara River islands.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said Tuesday that a decision on whether to appeal Arcara's June 21 ruling has not been made. Any appeal must be filed within 60 days of the judge's order.

The Senecas maintain the state illegally purchased the disputed land in 1815, a claim that has worried 18,000 Grand Island residents since the Senecas filed their lawsuit in 1993, seeking damages that possibly included ejecting them from their homes.

In his letter to Ashcroft, Pataki said Arcara's decision confirms that "the Senecas had no property interest in the Niagara Islands in 1815 and the state continues to hold legal title to the land."

Pataki asked Ashcroft to "reconsider the position that the United States has taken in this matter of great importance to New York and the innocent residents of Grand Island."

The state and the Senecas are engaged in discussions over the future of three Seneca-owned casinos in Western New York. The state has entered into a compact with the Senecas for the casinos, the Legislature has backed the plan and the Seneca Nation approved it in a referendum. But the compact has not yet been signed by Pataki because the state, according to an October law authorizing the casino, needs the Senecas to agree to certain union organizing protections at the future casinos.

In his letter to Ashcroft, Pataki appeared to go out of his way to note that the state has negotiated the casino compact. Michael McKeon, a Pataki spokesman, said the governor was not suggesting that the casino matter is linked to the Justice Department dropping an appeal on the land claim issue. Rather, he said, the casino issue was brought up in the land claim letter "to let them know where we are in our relationship with the Senecas, that we're continuing to work with them in positive ways on other issues."

Seneca President Cyrus Schindler declined to comment.

But a Colorado lawyer who is representing the Senecas in the land claim case said she expected the Pataki administration to lobby the Bush administration to drop the land claim case.

"I think there would always be a concern when the governor approaches the Justice Department because obviously states do carry political clout, and certainly with this administration I assume Pataki would have more clout," said Jeanne Whiteing, a Boulder lawyer.

If the Justice Department dropped out of the case, it would make it difficult for the state to be held liable in the land claim. Whiteing said the Senecas are hard-pressed to sue the state, but she said the federal government does have that constitutional right. Were the federal government not in the case, she said, it would be unlikely to hold the state liable in the land claim case.

But Whiteing said the Senecas would still appeal the case against the individual landowners within the land claim area, which includes Grand Island, Cayuga Island in Niagara Falls, Bird Island in Buffalo and about 40 other small, uninhabited islands in the river.

"It may raise issues as to the case against the state itself if the United States refuses to appeal, but the (Seneca) Nation's claims against individuals would remain unaffected and would not be changed by any decision by the United States not to appeal," she said.

The Seneca lawyer said she believes the United States is obligated to uphold past treaties signed by the Senecas. "We certainly will be looking for the United States to appeal this decision," she said. If not, though, she added, "The Senecas can certainly appeal the decision and would do so. The Seneca Nation has already authorized an appeal in the case."

"We'd obviously prefer to have the United States with us in any appeal, but it doesn't prevent us from going forward," she added.

Arcara ruled that the state legally has owned the islands since the American Revolution.