Jessica Crabtree

Here’s a story for love of irony…
The Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team has been denied the opportunity to participate in the World Lacrosse Games in Great Britain – the sport’s equivalent of the world cup – after the US government refused to recognize their national return passports.

The scuffle over passport jurisdiction is not new, since the territory of the Six Nations straddles both the US and Canada, resulting in a slew of on-going border disputes. But although these documents had been recognized in the past, when the Iroquois team participated in previous matches, recent regulation changes and international travel red tape have left the passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy considered “sub-standard.”

Indian Country Today: Iroquois Nationals Forfeits First Game

New York Times: Bid for Trophy Becomes a Test of Iroquois Identity

Onondaga Nation: The Iroquois and Lacrosse

The irony of this is so obvious that it’s hard to swallow; in the first place, since the Iroquois invented the game of lacrosse, and it is one of their most important sacred traditions; in the second place, because it’s a slap in the face to the very sovereignty of the Iroquois Nations (yes, I said sovereignty, because they exist legally as a distinct nation within the United States). We’re talking about the very same government that helped to give us our sovereignty.

This issue seems to illustrate the way the world’s major powers exercise their own arbitrary judgment over the rights and self-determination of indigenous peoples in general – and even sovereign states – who have the misfortune of being too small to matter. It’s a sorry picture, but that’s the way it is.

House Resolution 331: Recognizing the sovereignty of the Iroquois Confederation and acknowledging its particular contribution to the foundation of the United States (PDF)

See also:

The Founding Sachems: Indian Traditions of Democracy

A Few Thoughts on the Fourth: The Native American Face of Independence Day