The Associated Press
(Jul 15, 2010)
Posted Hamilton Spectator
The British government is refusing to allow the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team to travel to England using passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy.
The team, which includes several Six Nations players, won't be attending the world championship in Manchester unless the British government reverses its decision, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a lawyer for the team.
"They're telling us: 'Go get U.S. passports or Canadian passports,' " Frichner said yesterday shortly after getting the news. "It's pretty devastating."
The team's first game is scheduled for tonight.
For the past five days, travel and security authorities have refused to allow the team, which includes several Six Nations players, to fly out of New York's Kennedy airport.
Members of the fourth-ranked Iroquois Nationals don't have internationally recognized travel documents. They carry Six Nations or Haudenosaunee-issued passports, which are simple, partially handwritten documents which lack new security features now required for border crossings because of post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration.
The players are eligible for either Canadian or U.S. passports but say that accepting them would be a strike against their identity.
In a statement, the U.K. Border Agency said: "Like all those seeking entry into the U.K., they must present a document that we recognize as valid to enable us to complete our immigration and other checks."
The British government's decision was announced hours after the U.S. cleared the team for travel on a one-time waiver at the behest of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
U.S. authorities initially had refused to accept the passports.
Federation of International Lacrosse spokesperson Ron Balls said in a statement on the championship website that the Iroquois team would forfeit the opening game against England tonight if it didn't arrive on time. Frichner and other team supporters had held out hope that the game would be rescheduled.
The Iroquois Confederacy oversees land that stretches from upstate New York into Ontario. There are several Canadians in the Iroquois Nationals delegation. They include players Alexander Hill, Cody Jamieson, Craig Pont, Delby Powless, Isaiah Kicknosway, Roger Vyse, Ryan Burnham, Sid Smith and Tom Montour, and coach Cam Bomberry from Six Nations outside Brantford. Player Peter Jacobs is from Akwasasne in Ontario.
The Iroquois, known to members as the Haudenosaunee, helped invent lacrosse, perhaps as early as 1,000 years ago.
It is the only First Nations squad in the 30-nation championship. Their participation in the once-every-four-year world championship tournament is a rare example of international recognition of their sovereignty.
Canadian foreign affairs officials refused comment yesterday, citing privacy concerns, but confirmed they are aware of the situation.
NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said Canadian authorities should have reacted quicker to help the stranded squad.
"Why is it that the Americans can respond and rise to the occasion so quickly but Canada can't?" he said.
"This is our national sport. It wouldn't take more than a phone call to iron out but it's amateur hour for Canada on the world stage again."
Dewar says the broader issue of native passports needs to be addressed but that shouldn't come at the expense of the dreams of a lacrosse team.
Paul Williams, a lawyer for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy who lives in Caledonia, says native border crossing rights born out of historic treaties are being eroded. That is causing ongoing problems for Six Nations people at the Canada-U.S. border.
That's significant because the New York-Ontario territory of the Six Nations is bisected by the border.
"It's causing a lot of families real hardship at the border ... this goes far beyond lacrosse. It's a complicated mess."
-- With files from Meredith MacLeod, The Hamilton Spectator