This Friday in Denver, the Iroquois men’s lacrosse team will play its opening game of the World Lacrosse Championships against England, which hosted the last edition of the quadrennial tournament.
And this time, all is relatively quiet — at least in the travel department — for the Native American team whose ancestors invented the game.
Four years ago, the Iroquois squad made international headlines en route to the world championships in Manchester when, at the last minute, the British government wouldn’t recognize the tribal passports they had been using for decades. Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, stepped in to grant the team members one-time travel waivers. Oscar-winning director James Cameron donated $50,000 to defray costs while the team was stuck in New York City as bureaucrats dickered over documents.
