Earlier this year the International Olympic Committee announced new sports to join the Olympic competition beginning with the 2028 Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles. Among those games is Lacrosse – invented by the Haudenosaunee Nations, it is a time honoured game among the Native American Nations.
The Haudenosaunee Nations call the western and central areas of New York and southern Ontario as their home and are comprised of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora People.
When the Tribal Summit was held at the White House this month, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his support for the Haudenosaunee National Lacrosse teams to be among those competitors in the Olympics under their own National flag.
Speaking at the Summitt, President Biden said, “their ancestors invented the game. They perfected it for a millennia. Their circumstances are unique, and they should be granted an exception to field their own team at the Olympics.”
Rex Lyons, who is a member of the Onondaga Nation, is a former Nationals team player and noted that the Haudenosaunee team are the “best ambassadors” for the sport. He added, “it’s not like we don’t belong there. And not only that, it’s our game. We are the originators. It’s a medicine game.”
Current Nationals team member Randy Staats spoke on an opportunity to be an Olympian said, “for me personally, it would be a true honor. It’s all the best words you could possibly think of, rolled up into one, to be able to put on that jersey and go side by side with all the other countries in the world. It’s not only representing my family and my people, but other Native people. It gives them hope and change for treaties that they have with their government.”
Women’s team member Casandra “Bean” Minerd added, “us going to the Olympics would be an opportunity for education, where we’re not going to be fighting as much to prove who we are…and that we’re not extinct. I know that when that time comes, and we’re walking out with our flag and wearing our gear with Haudenosaunee across our chest, I’ll be sobbing the whole time because it’s just so huge. It’s bigger than myself. We’re giving the opportunity to kids thinking they can work towards becoming an Olympic athlete.”
Currently the Haudenosaunee National men’s team are ranked third in the world behind the United States and Canada in outdoor play. They are second in the world in indoor play. The Haudenosaunee men took home the bronze medal at the World Lacrosse Championships in June.
Ranked eighth in the world, the women brought home the gold medal at the Pan-American Lacrosse Association tournament last month.