The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team has forfeited their second game and is on a bus back home to Upstate New York, a spokesperson for the team said. Previous stories The team spoke with officials from the United Kingdom Border Agency today and were told they could not use their Haudenosaunee passports to travel to the World Lacrosse Championship in England....
The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team has forfeited their second game and is on a bus back home to Upstate New York, a spokesperson for the team said.
The team spoke with officials from the United Kingdom Border Agency today and were told they could not use their Haudenosaunee passports to travel to the World Lacrosse Championship in England.
“They said that their position hadn’t changed, that they would require us either carrying U.S.A. or Canadian passports,” said Oren Lyons, a founder of the team and the faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation.
The team was scheduled to play Japan at 1:30 p.m. today. According to the World Championship website, the team is scheduled to play U.S.A. on Sunday, Canada on Monday and Australia on Tuesday. Even though the team is leaving New York City, they are not withdrawing from the championship, Lyons said.
“We have a team that would still medal, even with those two losses,” he said. “We are not withdrawing from the contest and if they were to clear us, we are ready to go.”
The 23-member team has spent more than a week in New York City, waiting to fly out. However, a dispute over their passports — issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, not the United States or Canada — kept the team grounded. Wednesday, American government officials issued waivers saying the team members would be able to return to the United States, but British officials have refused to issue travel visas.
Each day has cost the team $23,000, said team spokesperson Valerie Taliman, including $5,000 for the team bus. The Nationals insist on traveling under Iroquois Confederacy, or Haudenosaunee, passports as a matter of sovereignty and national identity. The Haudenosaunee is made up of the Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations.
The passports had been accepted internationally for three decades, but in the past two years have become less accepted as nations adopted new rules requiring more sophisticated, more secure travel papers. Haudenosaunee and U.S. officials are working on those documents but they are not yet ready.
Contact Fernando Alfonso III at falfonso@syracuse.com or 470-6078 .