Assault on First Nations' Rights and Tribal Sovereignty? Iroquois Tribe prevented from flying to Lacrosse World Cup due to post-9/11 visa row

The Iroquois nation's lacrosse team is still unable to get on a flight to Europe where its members hopes to compete in the world lacrosse championships starting Thursday in England.

The teams participating in the World Lacrosse Championships in England represent 30 nations, from Argentina to Latvia to South Korea to Iroquois. And in a rare example of international recognition of American [Tribal] sovereignty, they participate at every tournament as a separate nation from the U.S.
Although the Iroquois' ancestors invented lacrosse, and are one of the best Lacrosse teams out there, they might not be at this year's world championship tournament because of a dispute over the validity of their passports.

As was reported by All Things Considered and elsewhere, the problem for the Iroquois team is that since 1977 they have used passports issued by the Iroquois nation to travel outside the U.S.

Passport controls have been tightened in the U.S. and elsewhere, a reaction to the 9/11 attacks.
The stricter requirements for passports caused the British government to question whether the U.S. would allow the Iroquois team members to return to the states with their unusual passports.

Meanwhile, the Iroquois refuse to obtain U.S. passports, if only this once, because they don't accept U.S. citizenship for themselves.

When U.S. officials said they couldn't guarantee the Natives would be allowed to return to American soil, the British balked at issuing visas to the Iroquois.
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 a tribal authority- wouldn't be honored.

But by showing up, the team avoided forfeiting its tickets. The airline allowed the squad to rebook its flight for Wednesday without penalty. Team officials remained hopeful that a last-minute diplomatic intervention would allow them to attend the World Lacrosse Championship, which is taking place in England.

Source:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/07/13/128499905/iroquois-lax-team-still-stuck-in-u-s