Iroquois Lacrosse Team Prevented From Traveling to Championships

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Iroquois Lacrosse Team Prevented From Traveling to Championships

Passport Snafu Leaves Iroquois Lacrosse Team Stranded - ABC News
State Department Refuses to Recognize Iroquois' Passports
By JOHN WETENHALL
July 13, 2010

The Iroquois lacrosse team is in danger of missing the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England, this week because the United States has refused for the first time in 30 years to recognize their passports, stranding them in New York City.

The players departed Manhattan on a bus for Kennedy Airport early this afternoon hoping to leave on a 4 p.m. flight to Amsterdam, but they had not yet been cleared to fly.

While waiting for their travel visas, members of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team prepare for a team picture in Times Square, New York, Monday, July 12, 2010. The 23 players on the Iroquois Indian lacrosse team cannot fly to England for what's considered the Olympics of the sport because the U.S. government won't allow them to re-enter the country on Iroquois nation passports, based on a treaty signed by George Washington. (Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. When dealing with the Feds,

you just have to find that one person who can cut through the red tape.

US allowing Iroquois lacrosse team to travel to UK

By SAMANTHA GROSS (AP) – 1 hour ago

NEW YORK — The U.S. government, at Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's behest, agreed to allow a Native American lacrosse team to travel to England for a world championship competition under passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy.

Clinton determined that the Iroquois team members did not need U.S. passports to make the trip and granted the players a "one-time-only waiver" to travel on their Iroquois Confederation passports, said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. The team members regard U.S. government-issued documents as an attack on their identity.

Asked why the department had dropped its opposition, he said, "There was flexibility there to grant this kind of one-time waiver given the unique circumstances of this particular trip."
....

The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse, perhaps as early as 1,000 years ago. Their participation in the once-every-four-year world championship tournament is a rare example of international recognition of their sovereignty.

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.