Sheryl Lightfoot is Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and author of
Elsa Stamatopoulou is Director of the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and author of
Haudenosaunee Passports and Decolonizing Borders
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Published:November 2023
This chapter argues that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's use of their own passports poses a quiet but powerful challenge to extant state power in the realm of passports. In doing so, this chapter argues that the Haudenosaunee passport is instrumentally reshaping the concept of self-determination to be accommodational of a plurality of sovereignties, distinct from the Westphalian concepts of sovereignty and territoriality. Rather, this chapter asserts that by refusing both Canadian and United States passports in favor of their own, the transnational Haudenosaunee Confederacy is reshaping notions of sovereignty and self-determination to be fluid and responsive to ongoing negotiation between peoples and states. In doing so, plural sovereignties are more easily accommodated in practice, and this chapter contends that this practical reality will have significant theoretical implications for international relations.
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