Lacrosse at Olympics? Indigenous nation Haudenosaunee Confederacy may compete in 2028

Granted provisional status by the International Olympic Committee in 2018, Lacrosse may be included in Los Angeles 2028, featuring in Olympic competition for the first time since 1908.

The sport would allow a platform for the world's top three nations to compete for a world title. Canada, the U.S., and the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

The issue roots out of the IOC’s Olympic Charter – the guidelines for who can compete and how the games must be run— stipulates that countries must be recognized by the international community to form a national Olympic committee. 

To be recognized by the international community primarily comes down to U.N. membership. The obvious issue is that the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is not an internationally recognized, much less independent state.

The Confederacy may have the opportunity to compete as other unrecognized nations like American Samoa, Hong Kong, and the British Virgin Islands do, however, they would be the first Native American nation to compete in the Olympics.

This could bar the Confederacy’s admission to the games, despite the Haudenosaunee being among the inventors of the sport and some of the world’s best players representing them.

The last time we saw lacrosse at the Summer Olympics was back in 1904 and 1908, which saw the Canadian team victories both times.

A little more than a century later, we might see lacrosse in Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics! "It means a lot for the next generation, I want to see my other relatives repping each other too. We're Native America," Lyle Thompson told Foreign Policy.

Players like Lyle Thompson, his brother Miles Thompson and young star Tehoka Nanticoke would be among the stars in professional lacrosse who would be barred from having the opportunity to represent their nation.

The most successful among them, Lyle Thompson is the only player of all time to win more than one Tewaaraton trophy, an award for the best player of that season in collegiate lacrosse. Tewaaraton is the word in the Mohawk language for the predecessor to the game of lacrosse as we know it.

The Haudenosaunee oral tradition holds that this early form of lacrosse – Tewaaraton– was designed by the creator, in which the land mammals would play against the birds. 

In practice, this early form is thought to have been played as early as 1100 A.D. and was later utilized as a sort of war game to release tensions between the six tribes and maintain fitness for war against their enemies.

This early lacrosse could have up to hundreds of players, games lasting from sunup to sundown across sometimes two to three days!

The game was also steeped in religious significance, and to a degree, still does today as the Thompson brothers still incorporate aspects of the Iroquois belief system in their instruction of the sport at their yearly lacrosse camp.

The Haudenosaunee leaders are working to form a National Olympic Committee and are coordinating with the now-named World Lacrosse, the World Games, and the International Olympic Committee.

Although the Geneva trip fell short of clinching formal U.N. recognition for the confederacy, its new Haudenosaunee passports would prove key to entering a tinier, cliquey, and humble club: that of international lacrosse competition.