Iroquois Team Barred From UK Lacrosse Tournament

[Derechos]

NEW YORK — An American Indian lacrosse team will not be allowed entry into England for the world championship of the sport the Iroquois helped invent unless members accept U.S. or Canadian passports, the British government said Wednesday.

The Iroquois Nationals team won't be attending the tournament in Manchester unless the British government reverses its decision and allows them to use passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, said Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a lawyer for the team.

"They're telling us: 'Go get U.S. passports or Canadian passports,'" Frichner said Wednesday shortly after getting the news. "It's pretty devastating."

The team's 23 players – who are all eligible for passports issued by those nations – say that accepting them would be a strike against their identity.

In a statement, the U.K. Borders Agency said: "Like all those seeking entry into the U.K., they must present a document that we recognise 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 issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, which lack new security features now required for border crossings because of post-Sept. 11 crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration.

Asked why the State Department had dropped its opposition, spokesman P.J. Crowley said: "There was flexibility there to grant this kind of one-time waiver given the unique circumstances of this particular trip."

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-N.Y., urged the British to reconsider their decision.

"If the British or any national entity seeks to sever this Iroquois Nationals team from their own national identity, then they're asking them to not be the athletes that they are," he said in a statement, calling it an "international embarrassment" if they're not allowed to compete.

snip

The Iroquois team is ranked No. 4 by the Federation of International Lacrosse and represents the Haudenosaunee – an Iroquois Confederacy of the Oneida, Seneca, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cayuga and Onondaga nations, whose land stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.

The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse, perhaps as early as 1,000 years ago. Their participation in the once-every-four-year world championship tournament is a rare example of international recognition of their sovereignty.

U.S. authorities had said the issue was a matter of border security rather than Iroquois sovereignty.

"For other countries, including the United States, that is not a travel document that is on par with a U.S. passport," Crowley said of the Iroquois documents. He noted that the Iroquois have had similar problems with their passports in foreign countries before.

"The best way to open doors around the world is to obtain a U.S. passport," he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/15/iroquois-team-barred-from_n_647351.html

[Nihil]

1. As pointed out on the LBN thread on this subject ...

... a *big* part of the problem is that the US authorities do not accept
the Iroquois "passport" and so do not guarantee to accept them back.

i.e., it is not just the "entering the UK on an invalid passport" bit
but also the risk of being left with people unable to re-enter the USA.

U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei, D-N.Y. should try getting his own house in order
before farting about with other countries.
:eyes: