Team was to play Spain at noon today after forfeiting Thursday's opening match against England.
View full sizeIroquois Nationals lacrosse player Marty Ward, of Syracuse, looks across the harbor to the Statue of Liberty National Monument from the dock of Battery Park in New York on Thursday.Update:
Syracuse, NY – Iroquois Nationals members hope to hear by noon whether British officials will grant the visas the team needs to travel to England for the World Lacrosse Championships, a lawyer for the Haudenosaunee nations said.
“There seems to be some movement in New York,” attorney Joseph Heath said about 11 a.m. “There description we’ve had is they think there is a slight window.”
The team has been waiting in New York City all week for diplomatic logjams to break up so its members and entourage can travel using Haudenosaunee passports. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday agreed to a one-time waiver to allow it, but British officials ruled that they must carry U.S. or Canadian passports.
Heath said he did not know which British officials were being courted but said "hundreds of people" had contacted the British government on the team’s behalf.
Among them was Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, who wrote to British Prime Minister David Cameron earlier today, urging his government to issue the needed documents.
If Britain agrees, one last hurdle would remain – getting the Canadian government to vouch for the nine Nationals players from its side of the border.
Haudenosaunee have traveled on their tribal passport for more than 30 years but recent rule changes have put their use in question. Native officials have been working with the U.S. government for two years to develop more technologically advanced documents, Heath said.
Earlier:
Washington, DC -- The president of the National Congress of American Indians is appealing to British Prime Minister David Cameron to let the Iroquois Nationals travel to the world lacrosse championships being held in Cameron's country.
"As you are aware, the game of lacrosse is indigenous to Native Americans," Jefferson Keel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, told Cameron in a letter bearing today's date and released at 9:21 a.m.
While the congress respects that the United Kingdom is the host country, Keel said, "in the view of Native peoples, denying entry to the game's historical and cultural emissaries is a troubling scenario."
"The legitimate documentation questions have been addressed, as reflected by the U.S. State Department's waiver for travel. We encourage your government to preserve the sanctity and intent of international gamesmanship and tribal sovereignty, and grant entry to the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team," Keel wrote.
The letter came as the Nationals were starting another day of waiting in New York City for permission to fly to England using Haudenosaunee-issued passports.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday agreed to grant a one-time waiver allowing Haudenosaunees born on the U.S. side of the Canadian border to travel on the passports, a move designed to overcome British security concerns. Haudenosaunee nationals have used the tribal passport for three decades, but recent post-911 rule changes now demand more technologically sophisticated documents.
British border officials have continued to insist that the team and its entourage also carry U.S. or Canadian passports. The team has declined, citing national sovereignty and identity concerns.
Team officials planned to continue to call officials at the British Consulate in New York City to press their case, Nationals Executive Director Percy Abrams said.
The championships started Thursday in Manchester without the Nationals. The team was replaced by Germany in the opening match against England and in the elite Blue Division.
Iroquois instead was placed in the Plum Division in a game against Spain that was to begin at noon today.