Kenneth Deer was in Geneva, Switzerland, at the same time that the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse squad was languishing in New York City, waiting for the English visa approvals that would never come.

A member of the Mohawk Nation, Deer made the trip to Switzerland solely on his Haudenosaunee passport.

In fact, Deer, who lives in Kahnawake, a Mohawk community in Quebec, has used his Haudenosaunee passport to make more than 100 international trips to 19 different countries over the past 24 years. He was even issued day passes from England while in the country for flight layovers, most recently in 2002.

“It doesn’t mean that they recognize the passport, but they will let us in,” Deer said. “On our side, we agree that we will behave respectfully.”

The Haudenosaunee passports have been in existence since 1977, when Iroquois citizens in the U.S. and Canada first used the documents to travel to a U.N. conference in Geneva to speak on the subject of the rights of indigenous people.

But it wasn’t until the Iroquois Nationals, a Native American lacrosse team traveling on Haudenosaunee passports, was refused entry to England last month that issues surrounding these passports caught the public’s attention.

Generally, the passports have been used by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, what many people know as the Iroquois Confederacy, for tribal-related travel as opposed to recreational vacations.

England is apparently not unusual — particularly in the post-9/11 era — in challenging the Haudenosaunee travel document. It is somewhat unusual — although not unprecedented — however, that England didn’t back down after the details of the planned travel were laid out and personal appeals were made, according to confederacy members.

Based on his own travel experiences, Deer said that many foreign governments initially reject the Haudenosaunee passport, but eventually let him in once he explains that he’s traveling as a representative of the

Haudenosaunee nation. In his case, he’s often traveling to meetings on the rights of indigenous peoples.

“We will approach countries and ask politely and nicely to let us in,” Deer said, adding: “Usually, I’m invited to attend a meeting of one kind or another . . . sometimes at the invitation of the state,” Deer said.

Countries he’s visited — many in the post-9/11 era — include South Africa, Taiwan, Venezuela, Estonia, Tunisia, Belgium, France, China, Bolivia, Panama, Mexico, the Netherlands and Switzerland — the site of his recent trip.

An official with the Swiss consulate in New York City said visa requests by the Haudenosaunee are generally limited to official matters — such as United Nations business — and not tourism, and sometimes require special authorization from Switzerland’s Federal Department of Migration.

“Basically, we’ll evaluate every case on a case-by-case basis,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We do not deny them based on their Haudenosaunee identification. We look at every case differently.”

Countries that have denied Deer visa entry in the past are Guyana, Peru and Brazil.

The reasons given for denying visas vary by country, ranging from England’s insistence that the passports lack proper security features to fears that accepting the passports may set an unwanted precedent, Deer said.

“If they don’t let me in, I don’t go,” Deer said. “It’s their loss.”

In the case of the lacrosse team attempting to travel to Manchester, England, last month for the 2010 World Lacrosse Championships, England refused to grant them visas, initially saying it wanted assurances the team members would be allowed to return to the U. S. with their Haudenosaunee passports. The U. S. initially responded by offering expedited passports for the players, but the team members refused, citing their sovereignity. Eventually, the State Department issued a one-time passport waiver for the team, but England still refused to grant visas.

Nicole Thompson, a spokeswoman for the U. S. State Department, said that the issue boils down to security.

“Tribal nations are free to issue documentation that identifies them as a member of a certain tribe,” Thompson said. “It introduces a certain degree of difficulty when you begin to introduce a wide variety of other documents that aren’t the standard U. S. passport.”

In fact, the Haudenosaunee are the first to acknowledge that their passport doesn’t contain the same security features as a U.S. passport.

That’s why they are working on making it more secure.

Karl Hill, chairman of the Haudenosaunee Documentation Committee, said that when the new Haudenosaunee passports arrive, tentatively in 2011, their security features will trump those of U. S. passports.

“We want to make sure that it has the capability . . . to be accepted anywhere in the world,” Hill said. “So we’re not just relying on the U. S. standards, we’re looking at the global picture here.”

sbrachmann@buffnews.comnull