Border official salts the wounds of passport seizure

The legitimacy of the Haudenosaunee passport has once again been raised.

That’s because Joyce King, who works as the director of the Justice Department of the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, had her passport confiscated by Canadian border officials on June 18.

King is infuriated that her passport was taken, but also because of the fact the passport was called “a fantasy document” several times by a Canadian border agent.
The Haudenosaunee passport, held by many in the Iroquois Confederacy and issued by the Mohawk Nation, is not a document recognized by Canadian border officials.

King, who has both a Canadian and American address, said she travels between the two countries sometimes three or four times each day, crossing at the Akwesasne border which extends into Ontario and the state of New York.

King, who said her age is “over 50,” has lived in Akwesasne her entire life. She said because of the frequency of her border travels, she rarely is asked to provide any identification.

On June 18 King was a passenger in a car driven by her sister. She said they were on their way to an event in Cornwall, a fundraiser which sees proceeds go to youth in Sri Lanka.

When King was asked to provide some ID, her first thought was that she could not show her driver’s license because it had expired. She said she had a new temporary one on her, but it did not include a photo.
So instead she took out her Haudenosaunee passport. And her difficulties began as she was taken inside the customs office for a secondary inspection.

“They said ‘We are seizing your passport’,” King said. “They must have repeated this ‘fantasy document’ four or five times to me. I think they were trying to get me to react to the fact they were calling it a fantasy document.”

King said she did emphasize to the border agent that she clearly heard the term fantasy document. She said she did that by speaking slowly, emphasizing each word.
“I wasn’t trying to antagonize them,” she said. “I was just trying to tell them I heard them call it a fantasy document. Then they started accusing me of being frustrated.”

King said her ordeal lasted about 30 minutes. Though her passport was seized, she was allowed to enter Canada after showing her Indian status card.

Though she said she’s rarely asked to provide ID, King said she had shown her Haudenosaunee passport to Canadian officials back in 2006. And they had even stamped her passport then.

“The passport is recognized in other countries,” King added. “I went to Japan on it (in 2007).”

King is also keen to get her passport back. She said she’s leaving that up to the Mohawk Nation, which issues the Haudenosaunee passport.

As of July 7, Bula Hill, an administrator with the Mohawk Nation based in Akwesasne, N.Y., said her group was about to finalize the letter to the Canada Border Services Agency requesting the return of King’s passport.

“What are they going to do with it?” Hill asked. “It’s no good to them.”

Hill said since King is a frequent border traveller, she was surprised to hear of her ordeal.

“Somebody must have been having a bad day,” she said of the border agent who questioned King.

Hill said a handful of others have also had their Haudenosaunee passports seized at the Canadian border in the past year. And the Mohawk Nation has been successful in retrieving them.

She wishes Canadian officials would simply start accepting them as a valid document.

“I think they should recognize it,” Hill said. “For some that’s all they have to show.”

A year ago Haudenosaunee passports had created plenty of headaches for members of the men’s Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team.

Officials from the United Kingdom would not let team members travel to England on them for the world field lacrosse championships. As a result, the Iroquois Nationals, who were considered a medal contender, had to pull out of the tournament in England.

But then, this past May, members of the Iroquois Nationals were allowed to travel to the Czech Republic for the men’s world indoor (box) lacrosse tournament on their Haudenosaunee passports.

Officials from both the Czech Republic and Switzerland (where members of the Iroquois Nationals had connecting flights) allowed the team to travel with the Aboriginal documents.

Chris Kealey, the communications manager for the Canada Border Services Agency, said he could not discuss King’s incident citing privacy issues.

He did say, however, the Haudenosaunee passport is not a document currently recognized by Canadian border officials.

He added he is unsure how many others have had their Haudenosaunee passports seized in the past.