Aides to Governor Pataki said last week that, unlike the Seneca leaders, several Mohawk leaders have appeared willing to continue negotiations.

Cornplanter, a Seneca leader, resided in Canawaugus.

His grandfather Nicholson Henry Parker was an influential Seneca leader.

Nicholson Parker also became a prominent Seneca leader as he was a powerful orator.

Sovereignty-minded Seneca leaders refuse to use the word "negotiations" and are wary of the long history of broken agreements with the state.

Cornplanter was half-brother to Handsome Lake, a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois.

The Seneca leaders in particular sought to target the Susquehanna's west branch, since it provided access to their lands in what is now western New York.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he would meet with Seneca leaders.

Queen Alliquippa, a local Seneca leader, gave him several hundred acres of land.

He and another Seneca leader, Queen Aliquippa, had taken their people to Wills Creek.