Pipeline opponents fear a spill would pollute waterways and say construction would desecrate lands tribes hold as sacred. .
Mr. Velky said he hoped to use the Kent reservation, and the land the tribe claims was taken, for new housing that will allow scattered tribe members to live "in harmony" with "the neighboring community".
Under the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua, any land the tribe buys automatically becomes part of its reservation and is taken off the tax rolls, much like land owned by churches.
The amount of money and land the tribe would receive far exceeds the state's last proposal in 1999, when the administration offered the Mohawks about $78 million over 50 years and title to the two islands.
Although losing significant portions of land, some tribe members were able to find work on the dam project.
The Chumash contend that Camp 4 is within the boundaries of the land the tribe had claimed before it settled on its reservation.
And, much as in the congressional and gubernatorial elections, liberals had a surprisingly good year.To be sure, some referendums had nothing to do with ideology: the noisiest contest pitted Las Vegas gambling interests against Indian tribes in southern California intent on installing slot machines on their land (the tribes won the right to do this).
Since then, the federal government has promised land to tribes, reneged and taken away control of reservations.
At the centre of the conflict is rivalry for resources, including water, between nomadic herders, backed by Khartoum, and those who farm the land - tribes from which most of the rebels come.
With the prospect of a giant dam flooding much of their lands, the tribe has enough problems, but it has been exploited by tourism now for 20 years.
In cases involving New York State Indians, he helped define the application of a 1790 federal law to land that tribes claimed New York State had inappropriately acquired from them.
