US allowing Iroquois lacrosse team to travel to UK for tournament after Clinton intervenes

US allowing Iroquois lacrosse team to travel to UK

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 team still needs British visas to attend the Lacrosse World Championship in Manchester, England. The British government said previously it wouldn’t give the players visas if they could not guarantee they’d be allowed to go home.

A British Consulate spokeswoman couldn’t immediately say whether the visas were forthcoming.

U.S. officials previously informed the team that new security rules for international travelers meant that their old passports — low-tech, partly handwritten documents issued by the Iroquois Confederacy of six Indian nations — wouldn’t be honored.

The team needs to get on a Wednesday flight to make a Thursday evening game.

“I am relieved that this bureaucratic technicality has been papered over and these young men can go and do what they have trained to do: play lacrosse and compete on the international scene,” Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said Wednesday.

The Iroquois Confederacy oversees land that stretches from upstate New York into Ontario, Canada.

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.

On Tuesday, the 23 members of the squad arrived at a Delta terminal at Kennedy International Airport wearing team jackets and shirts. Their manager, Ansley Jemison, didn’t expect to be allowed to board their flight to Amsterdam and wasn’t surprised to be turned away at the check-in desk.

But by showing up, the team avoided forfeiting its tickets. Airline officials said they would allow the squad to rebook its flight for Wednesday without penalty if it secured the proper documents, according to Jemison.

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