Police Patrol Indian Reservation After Slayings : Mohawks: Cuomo refuses to send in troops. A key aide will meet with tribal leaders and Canadian officials.

The New York State Police Wednesday patrolled a Mohawk Indian reservation which officers had sealed off Tuesday night after a weeklong spree of intra-tribal violence claimed two lives and left untold thousands of dollars in property damage.

New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo also dispatched a top-level aide to meet with Canadian authorities and tribal leaders at the St. Regis-Akwesasne Indian Reservation, which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border about 60 miles southwest of Montreal.

But Cuomo declined to send National Guard troops to the reservation, where armed Mohawks have clashed over the operation of half a dozen illegal gambling casinos on tribal land.

“We will not send military force because of the risk of bloodshed, because of what it would provoke,” Cuomo told reporters at the state Capitol in Albany.

However, prompted by the slaying of two Indians on Tuesday, hundreds of New York state police entered the reservation. They permitted residents to leave but not to re-enter.

Both U.S. and Canadian authorities described the scene Wednesday as quiet, in sharp contrast to the picture in recent days.

Last week, Indians opposed to gambling set up roadblocks to turn back an estimated 15,000 weekly casino patrons, bringing to a head a dispute that has raged for months on the 28,000-acre reservation.

The casinos employ more than 600 workers and reap millions of dollars in profits for the casino owners and investors, but anti-gambling factions contend that they encourage drugs and prostitution and corrupt the traditional Mohawk way of life.

In erecting the roadblocks, the anti-gambling forces demanded that leaders of the 14,000-member reservation deal squarely with the gambling issue and with the so-called Mohawk Sovereignty Security Force, or Warriors Society as the group is more commonly known.

The Warriors Society is a self-appointed band of about 500-600 heavily armed Mohawks who see themselves as protectors of what they call the reservation’s sovereign rights. Gambling opponents, however, describe them as a “goon squad” employed by casino owners to protect pro-gambling interests.

The day after the roadblocks went up, pro-gambling forces, many armed with AK-47 assault rifles, tore the road barricades down in a hail of gunfire. Fighting continued for days between the feuding factions, with thousands of rounds of ammunition fired, cars and homes burned and, in one instance, a hand grenade lobbed at a Mohawk police station, injuring three people.

The two men killed Tuesday were the first fatalities in the dispute. The dead were identified as Matthew Pyke, 22, a gambling opponent who reportedly was shot in the back by sniper fire, and Howard J. Evans, 33, a pro-gambling advocate. Both were slain on the Quebec side of the reservation.

Quebec authorities said Wednesday they were investigating the deaths, but had made no arrests and had no suspects.

As shotgun-carrying state police took up positions, police spokesman Sgt. Michael Downs said: “It seems like both factions are totally exhausted” by the fighting. He characterized the police presence as “like a relief valve. At least now there’s a third party they can turn to and maintain stability.”

Barbara Barnes, spokeswoman for the anti-gambling faction, welcomed the police. “People here have no peace of mind. As soon as the police leave, the shots will start again,” she said.

But Diane Lazores, a spokeswoman for the Warrior Society said: “We’ve got an armed invasion. If they want an international incident, they’re going to get one,” she said.

Young Mohawk children waited for their school bus beside armed state troopers, while many other Mohawks of all ages stayed at home.

“I’m not venturing out,” reservation resident Jack Hubert, a recent retiree, told the Associated Press. “I don’t want to spend my golden years being shot at.”

Cuomo’s emissary to the reservation was Henrik N. Dullea, the governor’s chief adviser on state operations and policy. Dullea “will be prepared to initiate formal negotiations next week” with Mohawk tribal leaders in an effort to resolve the longstanding gambling controversy, Cuomo said.

More than 600 Mohawks, mostly women, children and elderly people from the Canadian side of the reservation--the stronghold of anti-gambling sentiment--had been evacuated earlier to the Transport Canada Training Centre in Cornwall, a small town north of the reservation across the St. Lawrence River.

The gaming houses, which are stretched out along a 2 1/2-mile strip on the American side of the reservation, are illegal under federal laws because they do not have the sanction of the state. Pro-gambling forces ignore the law, however, contending that the reservation is sovereign Indian territory subject only to tribal law.

FBI agents and New York state police have staged several raids on the casinos, confiscating gaming machines, records and money. Casino operators also have been arrested and tried in court, but have stayed out of prison pending appeal of their convictions, authorities said.

“They contend they’re immune from New York state and other laws because they’re a sovereign nation,” said state police spokesman Downs. “So they just go back and reopen the casinos.”

Jurisdiction over the reservation presents a vexing problem for authorities because it covers territory in two different countries--the United States and Canada--and three different states and provinces--New York, Quebec and Ontario.

Government on the reservation itself is just as vexing because the American side and the Canadian side each has its own elected council, headed by a grand chief. There also is a hereditary council that seeks to govern in traditional Mohawk fashion.

Treadwell reported from Cornwall and Phillips from New York.