(AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out Onondaga Nation's lawsuit that claimed a massive swath of land running down the middle of New York state.
The Post-Standard reports that Judge Lawrence Kahn, in making his decision Wednesday, said that similar cases brought by the Cayugas and Oneidas were dismissed because they were not brought soon enough. The newspaper says Kahn also says the case would have disrupted areas that had been developed by generations of landowners.
The Nation had argued that the land - from the Canadian to the Pennsylvania borders - was illegally taken by New York state through a series of bogus treaties. New York was the lead defendant in the lawsuit that also named the city of Syracuse and a number of local companies.
An attorney for the Nation told the newspaper that it would take the case to the court of appeals and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court.
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)