New York City – While the World Lacrosse Championships opening game that they were supposed to play in took place in Manchester, England, members of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team cruised New York City in a bus, waiting for tribal leaders and U.S., Canadian and British officials to resolve their passport issues. The 23 players and their entourage left...
Members of an Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team board their bus from their hotel in the Queens borough of New York on Thursday for a trip to lower Manhattan as the fate of the team's travel to England to attend the World Lacrosse Championship remained in dispute.New York City – While the World Lacrosse Championships opening game that they were supposed to play in took place in Manchester, England, members of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team cruised New York City in a bus, waiting for tribal leaders and U.S., Canadian and British officials to resolve their passport issues.
The 23 players and their entourage left their Queens motel this afternoon for seek a spot where they could take team photos with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop.
It seemed likely as they crawled through traffic that they would miss yet another a 4 p.m. flight from Kennedy International Airport to Europe, Assistant Coach Freeman Bucktooth said.
It looked far more likely that they’d make an 8 p.m. scrimmage team officials have booked in Bayview, Long Island, still hoping to fly out Friday morning to make it to Manchester for the bulk of the tournament.
While they forfeited the opener against England – which played Germany in an exhibition match instead – the Iroquois still could play in four other round-robin games in their elite Blue Division. The first of those games is Saturday against Japan. The round-robin games determine rankings used to pair teams for the closing rounds.
That “if” depends on whether a way can be found to let the Nationals travel using their native Haudenosaunee passports.
U.S. officials granted one-time waivers Wednesday granting team members and officials born on the U.S. side of the Canadian border to use native documents. But the deal doesn’t cover nine members born on the Canadian side, and British officials remained insistent that all travel with more sophisticated U.S. or Canadian passports. That’s something the Nationals refuse to do as question of national identity.
Any conversations aimed at breaking the logjam remained in the deep background through the day. Joseph Heath, a Haudenosaunee attorney in Syracuse, said he assumed someone had been at the British Embassy today to press the team’s case but had no direct knowledge.
» Read our previous coverage on the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team