"Hopefully, this is our last night in New York City," says Onondaga Gewas Schindler. "Negotiations are still going on. That gives me strength."
View full sizeIroquois Nationals lacrosse player Charles Jacobs, of Tuscarora, dances to a Native American social song in the back of their team bus as Cody Johnson (left), of Six Nations, and Aaron Printup, of Tuscarora, watch. Despite delays and cancellations throughout the week, the team hopes it will be allowed to travel to England on Friday to compete in the Lacrosse World championship using their Haudenosaunee passports, as they have in the past. New York City — With their chances of playing in the Lacrosse World Championships in England fading, the 23 Iroquois Nationals players stuck in New York could have been frustrated and angry.
But on a 90-minute bus ride Thursday evening in rush-hour traffic, there was no sobbing. No smashing of lacrosse sticks. Instead, the Native American team, with players from the Onondaga and five other Haudenosaunee nations, banged on a drum, shook rattles and sang their ancient songs.
In the back of the bus, 6-foot-2-inch, 220-pound defenseman Charles Jacobs, who played on the Onondaga Community College’s national championship team this year, kicked off his shoes and danced. His teammates howled. “I don’t know anyone who can be mad when they are singing and dancing,” Jacobs said.
For a fifth consecutive day, the British government refused to allow the Iroquois Nationals to travel to England using their Haudenosaunee passports. The Nationals forfeited Thursday night’s opening game against England. They are scheduled to play Spain at noon today, another certain forfeit.
Team captain Gewas Schindler said he is optimistic a diplomatic breakthrough is coming. “Hopefully this is our last night in New York City,” said Schindler, an Onondaga who at 34 is the oldest player. “Negotiations are still going on. That gives me strength.”
The Iroquois Nationals put on a media blitz, which included having the team pose for dozens of photographers Thursday in Battery Park, with the Statue of Liberty behind them in the distance.
But there seemed no evidence England will relent.
View full sizeOnondaga Nation Faithkeeper and founder of the Iroquois Nationals Oren Lyons poses with team players and coaches on the dock of Battery Park in New York City with the Statue of Liberty in the background. They are holding the Iroquois flag. Despite cancellations and delays, the team hopes it will be able to travel to Manchester England for the World Cup Lacrosse championships on Friday with Haudenosaunee passports. Haudenosaunee lawyer Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a representative to the United Nations on indigenous peoples issues, said at 5 p.m. that the Haudenosaunee’s lawyers and leaders had no direct communications Thursday with the British Consulate in New York. The team was relying on U.S. Reps. Dan Maffei, D-DeWitt, and Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, to pressure the British, she said.
A spokesman for the British government in England reaffirmed Thursday it does not recognize as a valid travel document a one-time waiver approved by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to let the team travel on Haudenosaunee passports. The passports are considered less secure.
“At this stage, the Iroquois have not officially pulled out of the event, but it is now looking very unlikely that they will compete,” the Federation of International Lacrosse official website announced.
Team General Manager Ansley Jemison said the Nationals do not have flight reservations, but they hope to make some. The players are stuck in New York because the team insists on traveling on passports issued by the Haudenosaunee through an office at the Onondaga Nation.
Like his teammates, Iroquois Nationals player Jeremy Thompson said he would miss the world championships before he’d use U.S. or Canadian passports. “I would rather stay home,” said Thompson, 23, an Onondaga who is an All-American player for Syracuse University. “If we don’t get to go, we don’t get to go. But that Haudenosaunee passport is who we are. I wouldn’t want to go on a U.S. passport. I don’t consider myself a U.S. citizen.”
Thompson was born in Syracuse, grew up speaking the Mohawk language at the Akwesasne Territory and didn’t learn to read or write English until he was 10 when his family moved to the Onondaga Nation. “Whatever happens, happens,” he said.
The Haudenosaunee governments have issued passports to their members for three decades because they insist that they are sovereign nations and their people are not U.S. or Canadian citizens.
The Iroquois Nationals have used those passports to travel to world championships in the past in London, Australia and Japan. The team placed fourth in 2006 in Ontario. The team expected to win its first medal this year in Manchester, England.
But the games started without the Haudenosaunee, who say the creator gave them the game of lacrosse centuries ago. And the tournament could end without them. “We could be crying. We could be slamming our sticks. We’re not about that,” said Sonny Shenandoah, an Onondaga who serves as the team’s assistant trainer.
The Iroquois Nationals arrived in New York on Sunday, but there has been little time for tourism. Thompson said he and his teammates visited Times Square and the American Indian Community House, where Thompson bought sage and sweet grass to burn while he meditates.
Wednesday night, Thompson went to see “The Last Airbender,” a movie. Some of his teammates saw the Adam Sandler comedy, “Grown Ups.”
Some players acted like excited kids during Thursday’s bus ride, whipping out their cell phones to take photos of the Empire State Building and Ground Zero through their windows.
At Battery Park, they dickered over the price of sunglasses from a street merchant. The new sunglasses were not rose-colored, but that’s how the players said they expect the world to look today.
“The Iroquois bring a cache to the game that nobody else does,” said Oren Lyons, the Onondaga Nation faithkeeper, Hall of Fame goaltender and honorary chairman of the Iroquois Nationals. “It would be a disaster for the tournament (if the team can’t participate). You can’t have a tournament without the grandfathers of the sport.”
John Mariani contributed to this report. Contact Mike McAndrew at mmcandrew@syracuse.com or 470-3016.