SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) – New York state has agreed to pay nearly $3 million to scores of people beaten, arrested or chased away by state police during a protest on the Onondaga Indian Nation 15 years ago, the attorney for dozens of the plaintiffs said.

Terrance Hoffmann told the Post-Standard of Syracuse in a story published Sunday that the state and another lawyer representing others in the lawsuit have agreed to settle the case for just under $3 million. Hoffmann represents about half of the 98 people involved.

The settlement won't be final until all plaintiffs sign it, Hoffmann said.

State officials wouldn't comment on the settlement. The state would admit no wrongdoing, Hoffmann said.

Troopers and more than 100 protesters, mostly American Indians, clashed on May 18, 1997, on Onondaga land just south of Syracuse. The lawsuit accused troopers of using excessive force in breaking up a peaceful protest.

The protest was held not long after confrontations between state police and Seneca Indians on one of the tribe's western New York reservations south of Buffalo. Seneca demonstrators had shut down the New York Thruway where it passes through reservation land to protest the state's efforts to get Indian tribes to pay taxes on products sold to non-Indians at reservation businesses.

The Syracuse-area protest was held along Interstate 81 where it passes through the Onondaga Nation territory. State police officials have said the troopers broke up the demonstration out of concern for the public's safety.

Under the settlement, payments would range from $8,000 for protesters who were chased away by police to $200,000 to two men who were beaten by baton-wielding troopers, Hoffmann said.