“They are the Iroquois National’s lacrosse team. Members are from the U.S. and Canada and they play under their own flag. And they are not supposed to be practicing in New York City… 1,2,3…IROQUOIS.” (
CNN)
Members of the Iroquois Nationals are being denied entry into the United Kingdom because international law does not recognize the Iroquois passport for travel. The team has already missed their first match, and if the U.K. does not grant members of the team visas, they will be unable to compete in the World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England.
We’re analyzing the controversy from CNN, MSNBC, The Independent, The Vancouver Sun and HLN.
The Iroquois have been allowed to travel abroad with their passports since 1977, but they are no longer recognized internationally because of tighter travel restrictions put into place after 9/11. The U.S. State Department granted members of the team one-time waivers to travel with their own passports, but the British government says they will only accept them in conjunction with a U.S. or Canadian travel document.
The United States has even offered to issue the player’s expedited United States passports but the team refuses to use what they consider to be a foreign nation’s passport.
“We actually consider ourselves sovereign nations and we actually consider ourselves indigenous to North America. So Canada or U.S. is something we don’t really identify ourselves as. You know that’s something that kind of happened to us, it’s an arbitrary line in the sand to us really. We do draw guys from the Canadian side, we draw guys from the American side. And we’d like to maintain our sovereignty and travel on the passports that are issued to us by our people.” (
MSNBC)
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has been lobbying on behalf of the team. He says the rest of the Native American population will be watching to see how the players are treated.
“I believe we have an obligation to assure these young men's rights are protected.” (
The Independent)
But not everyone has come out in support of the Nationals. Canada’s
Vancouver Sun spoke with Indian affairs critic Marc Lemay who says letting the Iroquois travel abroad with their own nation’s passport is against the law, and tolerating it could open a Pandora’s Box.
“If this were to be generally tolerated as of tomorrow, the number of people claiming to be part of a nation and requesting their passport would explode. You'll see a Quebec passport, a Scottish passport, a Catalan passport, a Corsican passport."
Nationals' Assistant Coach Freeman Bucktooth told reporters this was not an issue of pride.
“It’s not making a stand, it’s doing the right thing. And the right thing is to have people honor our passports. To have the government honor what we have. We are one of the oldest governments in the world.” (
HLN)
So what do you think — should the British government allow the team entry or should the Nationals obtain U.S. and Canadian passports?
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