From Indian Country Today

Photo courtesy iroquoisnationals.org

NEDROW, N.Y. - The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team is scheduled to play the opening game in the 2010 World Lacrosse Championships in England, but the British Consulate has refused to recognize the team's Haudenosaunee passports and has delayed issuing travel visas while awaiting assurance from the U.S. State Department that the group will be allowed back into the United States.

The 23-member team and their entourage of family members, supporters, and fans - around 50 people altogether - are to be fingerprinted for visas at the British Consulate in New York on Monday morning, July 12. The hope is that the State Department will tell the consulate by then that the team and entourage will be allowed to return to the U.S. If that happens, the team will depart for England that evening.

The team was scheduled to leave July 11. The first game of the world tournament is set for July 15, and pits the Iroquois Nationals against England. The tournament is sponsored by the Federation of International Lacrosse, and takes place every four years. It is considered the Olympics of Lacrosse.

The delayed departure means the group will have to spend Sunday night in New York at a cost of around $23,000 in delay fees, transportation, shuttles, hotel rooms and food - a hefty sum for a team that is constantly fundraising, said Denise Waterman, (Onondaga) a member of the Iroquois Nationals board of directors, who plans to travel with the team.

"It seems, as Native people, we always have to do several things to make it through to an objective. There are always hurdles. But this is different, in that we usually do this very quietly and now we feel we need to let people know what's going on. We're meeting every hurdle as it comes up."

They had sent their Haudenosaunee passports to the British Consulate in New York and were told they needed to use U.S. or Canadian passports, even though team members have been traveling on Haudenosaunee passports for more than two decades.

"We said we cannot do that. We're our own people. We are a sovereign nation. We already have travel documents and we're participating in an international tournament, and to participate in an international tournament you have to be a country. We've been recognized by this organization as a country with our own citizens, our own sovereignty, our own land, and flag and anthem and we've belonged to this organization since around 1990 and we've been sending teams out since that time," Waterman said.

The Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) Confederacy is comprised of six nations: Onondaga, Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Cayuga. While each nation is a separate entity, they share a collective identity as Haudenosaunee and are issued Haudenosaunee passports, rather than individual nation passports.

The group's representatives met with the British Consulate and were told the consulate needed assurance from the State Department that the team would be allowed to reenter the U.S. through the immigration service when they return from England July 25.

"You know, our people are doing something really good and positive and we're doing it at the highest levels. Our athletes are excellent and such positive models for our younger children. We're still optimistic that we'll be leaving on Monday, but there are still hurdles to overcome. There isn't anyone more proud about this country. This is our home and we would never endanger it. If we had a phone call from the State Department just to reaffirm, "Yes, we're proud of them, we'll welcome them back," it would be nice to know they'd be supportive of us," Waterman said.

Tonya Gonnella Frichner (Snipe Clan, Onondaga Nation), the North American Regional Representative to the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, has been working with the State Department to resolve the issue.

"Of course there are issues with borders and security going on right now, and we respect that so we want to meet all the criteria of any government, but we're also asking for an accommodation of the use of our own credentials."

The British wanted the team to travel on U.S. and Canadian documents because there is no category for Haudenosaunee in their visa process, Gonnella Frichner said. But the Nationals will be competing against U.S. and Canadian teams.

"The Iroquois Nationals represent the Iroquois and are going to travel on Haudenosaunee credentials since that's who we're representing. It wouldn't make sense to be asked to travel on the passports of our competitors."

The team has traveled widely, including to England, Australia, Japan and Canada and has never had a problem returning home.

"It's just not going to happen that the indigenous people of North American are going to be blocked from returning to our own territory," Gonnella Frichner said.

She also pointed out that lacrosse, which is called "the Creator's game" on the Iroquois Nationals' Web site, [http://iroquoisnationals.org/] was founded in Iroquois territory.

"When you talk about lacrosse, you talk about the lifeblood of the Six Nations. The game is ingrained into our culture our system and our lives," said Oren Lyons, Onondaga Faithkeeper and a former All-American Lacrosse Goalie.

"This is our game and this is our gift to the world," Gonnella Frichner said.

The next issue of Sports Illustrated will feature a story about the Iroquois Nationals, she said.

"And we're going to open the World Championship next week. This is big time. I know that the world sometimes thinks that Native people have little influence and we're so small in numbers and we can't do much of anything, but we can. We have a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a human rights instrument that nobody else has and we fought for that for over 30 years," said Gonnella Frichner, who was deeply involved in the struggle to actualize the Declaration.

"We know how to work on a diplomatic level. So don't count us out."

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