If you haven’t heard (I hadn’t until Friday), the Iroquois lacrosse team has been barred from competing in the lacrosse world championship because the British government won’t accept their passports, which lack necessary security features. There’s a lot to unpack here, but I’ll just say two quick things and let you all discuss the rest in comments.
First off, in a world in which imperialism and colonialism lead to terrorism leads to heightened security, only wealthy and “acceptable” nations will enjoy reasonably unrestricted travel to and from their home countries (see article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). See also the problem with Palestinian passports.
Secondly, as various news outlets have pointed out, the Iroquois created the sport that they are now barred from playing. Their sport is considered worthy of a world championship, but they themselves are not worthy of playing it – otherwise, the British government would be sympathetic enough to their situation to work toward a solution. I know this issue is complex, but could this be considered a form of cultural appropriation?
There’s been some work by developed countries to assist developing countries in obtaining the technology and know-how to issue high-technology travel documents – I’m personally familiar with the work done by the NZ govt to help the Vanuatuan passport office to deploy sufficient security features in their travel documents to meet these sorts of standards. One would think the Iroquois would be in a position to benefit from similar assistance from the US or Canada or both – although obviously that doesn’t help the lacrosse team in the short term.
Still it is worth noting that turning down the passports on technical grounds is a step up from refusing to recognise them outright – it’s not a challenge to the Iroquois nation’s existence on an absolute level, merely on a technical level. (Of course this is cold comfort to the lacrosse players, and I’m aware that technical challenges can simply be legitimacy-challenges in disguise).
Obviously a world where nobody needs any passports to travel would be preferable, though.
When I heard about the problem, it was the US government that was refusing to accept the Iroquois passports. This was even more problematic, because Iroquois land is completely surrounded by the United States–if they aren’t allowed to pass US borders, they can’t go anywhere else in the world. The US offer to arrange expedited passports for the Iroquois lacrosse team was a problem, because treaties say the Iroquois Nation is not part of the US.
Even though it looks like the State Department decided at the last minute to recognize the Iroquois passports, I don’t blame the UK for not issuing visas to travelers who might not be able to go home. And it looks like the Iroquois team would only be allowed through a US border to go home after the tournament if somebody at the US State Department overrides the passport rules again to give them permission. Which they won’t promise to do. *eyeroll*
I know this issue is complex, but could this be considered a form of cultural appropriation?
I don’t think so. If there were any cultural appropriation, it would be how lacrosse has become a world sport for so many people who don’t know or care about where it came from. I don’t see that as being a problem, though I am very much an outsider, and willing to be corrected by people who know the situation from inside. The Iroquois team IS considered worthy of playing it–they are recognized as one of the best teams in the world.
I think the travel restriction would be exactly as wrong if it had nothing to do with lacrosse–if an Iroquois soccer team were prevented from going to compete in a preliminary round of the World Cup, or if an Iroquois orchestra were prevented from going to a European music festival. But the combination of being one of the best teams in the world, and their people having invented the sport, helps draw more attention to the story.
The problem, unfortunately, is that there is no Iroquois nation-state. The Iroquois do not control their own borders, they do not have international recognition from any country, their territorial claims are de jure part of Canada and the United States, and they have been for hundreds of years. While I understand the frustration year, the simple fact is that there is no Iroquois nation. It was destroyed by European settlers, and absorbed completely into Canada and the United States.
Now, we can argue whether that was a horrible historic wrong — I think the answer is unquestionably yes. But it is a fait accompli . Unless the Iroquois Nation is going to declare independence and, more important, unless it manages to win it (either through assertion of treaty rights or a war of independence), their passports are likely to continue to be viewed as in the same class as Transnistrian passports. And frankly, I’m not so sure that’s wrong. Countries have the right to know who’s coming to stay inside their borders. And passports issued by tribal entities that are wholly under the jurisdiction of the U.S. government are going to instantly be seen as suspect, especially as those proffering Iroquois passports are all eligible for U.S. or Canadian passports.
The one possible solution — one I’d support, incidentally — would be for the State Department to work with tribal entities to jointly issue tribal passports, backed by the U.S. government as well as Native American tribes. This would recognize the facts on the ground — that for good or ill, American members of the Iroquois tribe are subject to American laws — while still recognizing and supporting the unique position of members of Native American tribes as people with dual loyalties.
Oh, and the other major problem here is Lacrosse’s unfathomable decision to require teams to travel on the passports of their nation, thus making the Iroquois travel on Iroquois passports even if U.S. passports were available. Needless to say, this is just plain stupid. The English team that played in soccer’s world cup traveled on UK passports. As would the Scottish or Northern Irish national teams had they qualified. There’s no reason whatsoever that Lacrosse’s governing body can’t recognize the Iroquois Nation as a national team for the purposes of Lacrosse, just as Wales remains a national team for the purposes of soccer despite being part of a larger nation.
I had read about this initially in Sports Illustrated; my son played lacrosse for his high school and for the Division 1 school he attended and he still plays now. It’s my understanding that the Iroquois refuse to travel on U.S. passports, as that is considered by them as granting legitimacy to the assertion by the United States that they are U.S. citizens instead of rightfully citizens of an independent Iroquois nation.