Help ICT make strides in 2024. Our goal is to raise $150,000 by the end of the year with generous contributions from funding partners and collaborators like you. We’re thankful for your support, and we’re thriving because of it. DONATE TODAY!
Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
The Haudenosaunee Nationals’ women and men lacrosse teams have been outspoken about competing under their own flag at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles and Wednesday they will get support from a top world leader, President Joe Biden.
During his address to hundreds of Indigenous leaders at the 2023 White House Tribal Nations Summit, Biden will express his support for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to field their own team and compete under their own flag.
At the summit, Biden will also announce “far-ranging executive order that really starts with that value, which is our nation-to-nation relationship is about respect,” Tom Perez, senior advisor to the president and director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, told ICT.
The Biden administration will be advocating for a narrowly-scoped exception.
“We certainly are most grateful to President Biden and the U.S. government for their very candid support of our inclusion in the Olympics,” Leo Nolan, executive director for the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse, told ICT.
One way the teams can compete is through an exception that can only be determined by the International Olympic Committee. While this decision is out of the hands of the hosting country, the support from one of the most influential world leaders would be monumental.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy — made up of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora nations — is located across southern Ontario, Canada and upstate New York.
“The Haudenosaunee Confederation literally invented lacrosse almost a thousand years ago,” Perez said. “They are a world-class team, I should say teams plural, because the men and the women are world-class teams.”
The men’s team is No. 3 in the world and the women’s ranks No. 8. World Lacrosse “is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the international governing body for lacrosse,” according to their website. The Nationals are one of 90 member federations of World Lacrosse.
In fact, they were the fifth member to join World Lacrosse. At first the Nationals struggled to compete on the international stage but that quickly changed. Now, they run two successful and competitive programs.
“One other thing that’s pretty remarkable is that the total population of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is about 200,000,” Perez said. “I’m not talking about 200,000, 18 to 25-year-olds who play lacrosse. I’m talking about 200,000 total. And to field a men and women’s team that are world-class is truly remarkable.”
The game was given to the Haudenosaunee nations by their creator and is used as a medicine game. Originally, only men were allowed to participate. This has since changed as lacrosse is seen as a secular game, though some Haudenosaunee women still choose to not play.
“Lacrosse is an important part of our culture, our Haudenosaunee culture, but we’re sharing that game, that’s part of our responsibility,” Nolan said. “When Creator gave us this game was to share it. Now, more than 90 countries are members of World Lacrosse. And I think that shows our reach and our status as being the creators of the game.”
In October, lacrosse was accepted as an Olympic sport for the 2028 games. It will be a medal sport for the first time since 1908.
ICT is a nonprofit news organization. Will you support our work? All of our content is free. There are no subscriptions or costs. And we have hired more Native journalists in the past year than any news organization ─ and with your help we will continue to grow and create career paths for our people. Support ICT for as little as $10. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.