Iroquois passport dispute raises sovereignty issue

Source: AP

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — An American Indian lacrosse team's refusal to travel on passports not issued by the Iroquois confederacy goes to the heart of one of the most sensitive issues in Indian Country — sovereignty.

The rights of Native nations to govern themselves independently has long been recognized by federal treaties, but the extent of that recognition beyond U.S borders is under challenge in a post-Sept. 11 world.

After initially refusing to accept Iroquois-issued passports because the documents lack security features, the State Department gave the team a one-time waiver.

But leaders of the Iroquois Nationals squad announced Saturday that a last ditch attempt to persuade British officials to recognize their passports had failed, meaning the team wouldn't play in its last scheduled game.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hLOUdhY0WVE7Ew6shBEUxTuvVE3gD9H14SKG1

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News that Matters! - http://senselessworld-cory.blogspot.com/

why are they coming crying to the American State department for help?

had to get a visa from Israel to work in Palestine.

Simultaneously insulting, belittling and ahistorical.

will arise.

a regime...

Their wholesale slaughter, forced migrations, forceable quarantine to virtually uninhabitable lands, forced "re-education," systematic cultural annihilation, laws which enforced complete segregation (in effect in many areas until the 1940s or later...), etc., etc., etc.?

I mean, seriously. Your point is... my suffering's greater than your suffering, so you can't use that word? WTF?

You said that first nation people live currently in apartheid... this simply isn't true.

I must of missed that part of the article.

That is very offensive to those of us whose ancestors were exterminated for a few bucks a scalp bounty.

Because what happened a hundred plus years ago was not relevant to the post I was responding to.

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the reservation.


As for the severe poverty, crime, alcoholism, drug use, gang affiliation, ect that can be found on many reservations. This is not the correct post or forum to go into a long winded diatribe but I wouldn't be so quick to blame outsiders for the state of reservations in the twenty first century.

Its why SSCS quit using it for official purposes.

recognize Indian Nation car tags either.

so they cheated by pulling this bullshit on the team. Now the ones who win the lacrosse championship will not really be viewed as real champions since not every viable opponent was allowed to play. It'll be a bittersweet victory because this decision to not allow them in to play was bogus.

This is just another "squash them under the thumb of white bureaucratic supremacy" move. G_d forbid any others in ANY endeavour dare challenge our "veto power." YOU WILL NOT BE INCLUDED. YOUR VOICE (OR MASTERY) IS SILENCED! Whatchoo gonna DO about it, eh?

Native American sovereignty by tribes in N. America outside of Canada and Mexico (and points south) is "sovereignty minus" or "statehood plus". They're dependent nations, they're domestic nations. "Dependent" denies independence; "domestic" voids pretensions to international status.

They're clearly not part of states. But they are within and part of the United States; they're US residents. We don't have passports for Washington DC or Puerto Rico or Florida or Guam or Idaho for the same reason. One could object that Florida Idaho are clearly states and did unite; Puerto Rico and Guam and DC are not.

Indians vote for US president. They qualify for US benefits. There are no routine customs or tariffs or visa requirements at their borders. They are not immune to federal law and are subject to SCOTUS and Congress. They receive US federal benefits.

The Iroquois don't have a vote in the UN General Assembly nor could they or the Hopi or Inuit or Navajo or O'odham be considered for a Security Council seat, any more than the Chuvash or Yakut or San would be.

Passports reflect citizenship. I was born American. If I live in the Czech Republic for 30 years but never become a Czech citizen or adopt any other country's citizenship, I'll continue to carry a US passport by default. Palestinians, emigres from the USSR, and other groups have suffered precisely from the country/citizenship problem: citizens of no state they carried no country's passport. Hansen passports existed for the stateless.

The US government has no authority for recognizing Indian passports. If we assume that the government has any power not specifically denied it then this isn't a problem. If we assume, on the other hand, that the government only has the powers granted to it by common law, Constitution, and state then the proper response is to promulgate a law, during the passage of which we'd get to discuss and debate the extent to which sovereignty from the US means actual sovereignty or just symbolically selective nationalistic perks.

The breakup of the odd union of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, or the breakup of Yugoslavia may be in some way laying the groundwork for a more muscled native nation to broach the topic of seceding from the United States.

You’re a ... you’re a ... you’ve been given sovereignty and you’re viewed as a sovereign entity." - G.W. Bush, 2004