Iroquois stickers still stuck
NEW YORK — There were cheers and hollers aboard the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team bus as the players geared up for a very different encounter from what they had planned for Day 1 of the World Lacrosse Championships in England.
Instead, with the Statue of Liberty in the background, team members got into uniform Thursday and filed out of the bus to pose for a gaggle of journalists and repeat their case for a few TV cameras: They should be allowed into England for the games using their Iroquois-issued passports. Why would the British demand they use U.S. and Canadian passports when they don't consider themselves citizens of those nations?
Today, they awaited word of whether they would be granted permission to travel to Manchester, England, in time to play their second tournament game, scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The team defaulted on its first game, against England, when it didn't arrive Thursday.
Negotiators for the team have been pursuing diplomatic channels, and on Thursday team chairman Oren Lyons sounded a hopeful note.
"There is movement in our discussions with the U.K.," the Onondaga Nation chief said in a statement. "We don't know if we can resolve the issues in time for us to make our next game."
But a spokesman for Britain's Home Office who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry rules said later in the day in London that its stance had not changed and that a change was highly unlikely overnight.
On Sunday, U.S. authorities refused to accept the passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy because they lack security features required for border crossings amid post-Sept. 11, 2001, crackdowns on document fraud and illegal immigration.
After days of negotiation, the U.S. cleared the team Wednesday for travel on a one-time waiver at the behest of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who as New York senator once represented some Iroquois lands.
But hours later, the British government said the team wouldn't be allowed in without U.S. or Canadian passports.
