(cbc) The British government has refused to allow an Iroquois lacrosse team to travel to England using passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy. A British Consulate spokeswoman says the team would be able to travel only with documents the United Kingdom considers valid. Tonya Gonnella Frichner, a member of the Onondaga Nation who works with the team, says it was told by British officials that members would have to use U.S. or Canadian passports to travel to Britain. The decision was announced hours after the U.S. cleared the team for travel on a one-time waiver at the behest of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Iroquois helped invent lacrosse and, in a rare example of international recognition of American Indian sovereignty, participate at every tournament as a separate nation. The 23 players have passports issued by the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of six Indian nations overseeing land that stretches from upstate New York into Ontario. The U.S. government had said it would only let players back into the country if they have U.S. passports, a team official said. The British government, meanwhile, wouldn't give the players visas if they could not guarantee they'd be allowed to go home..

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