US rule could keep Iroquois from lacrosse tourney
NEW YORK (AP) — Iroquois lacrosse team officials say their squad is being kept from the world championship of the sport invented by their ancestors because of a disagreement over passports.
The 23 players had planned to travel Sunday to Manchester, England, on passports issued by the Iroquois confederacy.
But Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a member of the Onondaga Nation, says the State Department won’t allow them to return to the U.S. with the documents.
Frichner says the team has declined an offer of U.S. passports and won’t travel using documents issued by a competitor.
The team says it was allowed to travel with Iroquois passports as recently as 2002.
U.S. officials didn’t immediately respond to messages left Monday.