Iroquois Lacrosse Players Get The Shaft
By Wyatt Earp | July 16, 2010
So get this: An Iroquois lacrosse team is missing the world championships because the United States and Great Britain are having a pissing match over the team’s visas. Over visas.
Never mind that Native Americans – most likely the Iroquois – invented the game; we can’t have folks traveling abroad without the proper paperwork! .
A Native American team forfeited their opening match of the men’s lacrosse world championship on Thursday after being denied entry to Britain on tribal passports. The Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) said in a statement that the 23 Iroquois players had been told they needed U.S. or Canadian documents to attend the two-week tournament in Manchester. The Iroquois, whose tribal ancestors are credited with inventing the game, say accepting such passports would be a blow against their national identity.
“We are sorry that the Iroquois are still having problems getting their visas,” said FIL spokesman Ron Balls. “Given the delays, we had to make a decision on the opening date.”
FIL said the U.S. government had given the team a one-off waiver to travel to Britain. It added the Iroquois had not withdrawn from the competition and could still compete if granted access. The Iroquois had been due to play their opener against hosts England, who will now play Germany instead in an exhibition match. (Thanks to Hottie for the tip.)
Sure, the team can still compete, but they already forfeited their opener. What are the chances that they’ll win the tournament now? Slim and none.
Topics: Lacrosse | 8 Comments »
July 16th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Sad.
July 17th, 2010 at 8:53 am
Here’s what galls me the most about this. Remember we’re talking about Britain here. You know, the place that will grant a visa to any Muslim Imam who wants in (not necessarily a problem), including the ones preaching about how the decadent west must be destroyed and praising suicide bombers (VERY much a problem). But watch out for those Iroquoi!
July 17th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Stuck on Stupid again, Obama,….
FWIW – The Iroqious are THE best players in pro-LAX, both outdoor and indoor. Period.
July 17th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
RT – And completely unnecessary.
Indiana Ed – Yeah, I don’t remember the last time the Iroquois set up an IED.
BA – No argument here. I played a scrimmage against one of their teams in college. Kicked our asses.
July 17th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
uhm, the problem is that the Iroquois refuse to use either canadian or US passports, cause they are special little nationalists that cannot be seen with those imperialist passports put out by a real country….not because britain is anti US, but cause the club refuses to get real passports, by you know, a real country.
July 18th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Dude I have to agree with Pickle on this. I saw the story and they have issued their own Iroquois Nation passports. If they wanted to play that badly they would have got the right paperwork.
July 19th, 2010 at 7:40 am
hey–Pickle does make a good point. Only thing is the precedent has already been set, the team has used these passports in the past, right? They placed 4th in Perth in 2002–post-9/11. What passports did they use then? Since then i belioeve the tourney has been hosted in US or Canada, so it’s not been an issue.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:05 am
They don’t need U.S. or Canadian passports, the rest of the world needs to quit treating them like they’re irrelevant.
Perhaps the FIL should hold their championship on Iroquois land sometime.