Them silly savages...

[lsanderson]

Bid for Trophy Becomes a Test of Iroquois Identity

Jeremy Thompson and other members of the Iroquois Confederacy’s lacrosse team practiced at Wagner College on Staten Island.
By THOMAS KAPLAN
Published: July 12, 2010

The Iroquois national lacrosse team was hoping to spend Monday getting acclimated in England as it prepared for its first game in this year’s world championships.

Instead, the team was stuck in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan, missing the visas needed to travel abroad. And the stakes are bigger than a game: what began late last week as a documentation dispute with the British consulate became on Monday a debate over American Indian sovereignty.

Playing international sports, it turns out, is a lot more complicated when players have to convince the State Department that their passports are legitimate. More

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's more complicated, but this and the Polanski case tempt me to conclude that the U.S. is not competent to deal with grown-up countries.

[buttonlass.livejournal.com]

"...the State Department said Monday that federal law does not allow a tribal document to be used in lieu of a United States passport when traveling outside the United States."

This is horrible. Our federal laws should have nothing to do with their passports. Since they are a sovereign nation they should be treated as such.

I can't believe we just continue to screw over the Native American population to this day. Wasn't it quite enough that the Europeans showed up, killed their members, and stole their land? Now they have to say "Please may we?" Fuck that.

[yarram.livejournal.com]

This is part of a trend of suddenly deciding not to recognize Haudenosaunee passports. A group of Mohawks who went to Bolivia for an environmental conference were refused readmission to the US and Canada when travelling on their Haudensaunee passports:

http://kahnawakenews.com/clients/kahnawakenews/canada-prevents-mohawks-from-returning-home-on-haudenosaunee-passports-p798.htm?twindow=Default&smenu=1&mad=No

So I suspect it's part of a larger campaign to continue to delegitimize Native/Indigenous sovereignty.