While political forces collide, team tries to stay focused on possible games.
View full sizeIroquois Nationals assistant coach Freeman "Boss" Bucktooth says the whole team supports the decision only to travel on Haudenosaunee passport to the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester England.Iroquois Nationals assistant coach Freeman “Boss” Bucktooth said Wednesday was the first day that the team did not practice since it arrived in New York on Sunday.
Instead, the team held a meeting in the tiny breakfast room at their Comfort Inn to make sure that everyone stayed positive and was prepared to play hard if the team reaches England for the World Lacrosse Championships.
The players support the team’s decision not to travel unless they are allowed to use their Haudenosaunee passports, said Bucktooth, an Onondaga Nation man whose two sons, Brett and Drew, both play on the team.
“We can’t compromise what we believe in, our sovereignty,” Bucktooth said as he drank coffee this morning. “There’s no way we would use a U.S. passport.”
“If you give up your sovereignty, you give up the treaties we have been fighting to uphold all these years,” he said.
Bucktooth said he has used his Haudenosaunee passport to travel to England, Japan and Australia for international lacrosse tournaments.
“Granted, it’s the 9-11 era and people are more cautious. They should be,” Freeman said. “But we have 23 players. We’re lacrosse players, not terrorists.”
The Iroquois Nationals’ roster includes seven players who grew up playing lacrosse at the Onondaga Nation: brothers Drew and Brett Bucktooth; brothers Jeremy and Jerome Thompson; Spencer Lyons; James Cathers; and Aaron Printup.