Despite creating lacrosse nearly 1,000 years ago and fielding one of the world's best national teams for over three decades, the Haudenosaunee Nationals remain locked out of Olympic competition. The IOC cited that they don't represent a "recognized nation-state" in the colonial framework that governs international sports. The irony cuts deep: the Haudenosaunee can watch colonizers play their sacred game on the world's biggest stage, but they can't compete under their own flag, which didn’t even exist until they created it specifically for international lacrosse competition.
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How Colonizers Appropriated and Regulated Lacrosse
When the Haudenosaunee first played what they called teiontsikwaeks ("they bump hips"), it was known as the Creator's game, a spiritual practice used for healing communities and connecting with the divine. Male newborns received miniature cradle sticks, and men were buried with their favorite stick. The wooden stick was a living entity, a sacred connection between player and Creator.
Then came the colonizers, and everything changed.
W. George Beers, known as the "father of modern lacrosse," published his rules for field lacrosse in July 1867, the same month Canada became a dominion within the British Empire. By 1868, organizers had adopted Rule IX, Section 6: "No Indian must play in a match for a white club, unless previously agreed upon." And by 1880, the National Amateur Lacrosse Association had effectively banned the Iroquois from their own sport entirely.
The transformation was deliberate and devastating. Colonial governments and boarding schools weaponized Western sports to erase Indigenous culture while simultaneously banning traditional games. The "civilizing mission" demanded that Indigenous children abandon their ancestral practices for "proper" European sports. Lacrosse survived this cultural genocide, but it was stripped of its spiritual significance, repackaged as a prep school game, and dominated by the very institutions that had tried to destroy Indigenous culture.
Olympic Rules Based on Colonial Nation-State Framework
The Olympic Charter requires teams to represent "recognized nation-states" with National Olympic Committees. But this framework assumes European-style nation-states, completely ignoring Indigenous nations that predate colonial borders by centuries. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy has existed for over 1,000 years, maintaining treaties with the United States, France, Great Britain, New York state, and the Netherlands. They travel on their own passports, operate under their own governance structures, and maintain diplomatic relations as a sovereign entity.
Yet none of this matters to the IOC. The colonial nation-state box is the only box that counts.
Lewis Mitchell, a Mohawk lacrosse stick-maker and former Nationals player, remembers the profound impact of seeing the Haudenosaunee flag raised alongside other nations at international competitions. "That was just something I had never seen in my life: to have our flag up there with these other nations. It was just amazing." But at the Olympics, that flag, designed specifically for international lacrosse and now adopted as a symbol of Haudenosaunee unity, will remain absent.
Contemporary Exclusion and Visa Battles
The current Olympic standoff reveals how colonial frameworks continue operating in plain sight. The Haudenosaunee Nationals have competed internationally since 1990, ranking third in the world in men's field lacrosse. They've traveled to every World Championship, often facing visa crises because colonial governments refuse to recognize their passports. In 2010, they missed the World Championships entirely when Britain rejected their Haudenosaunee passports. In 2018, it took two days of frantic diplomacy to get them into Israel for the World Championships.
The IOC's suggested "solution" is that Haudenosaunee athletes can "try out" for U.S. or Canadian teams. In other words, the people who invented lacrosse can play their own game only by pretending to be citizens of the countries that colonized them. Nationals star Lyle Thompson has said, "I would never play for Canada or the U.S."
Haudenosaunee Maintain Indigenous Approach to the Game
However, the Haudenosaunee aren't backing down. Their approach to lacrosse, emphasizing creativity and entertainment for the Creator, and playing with a "clear mind", remains distinctly Indigenous. While college and professional lacrosse focuses on rigid systems and structured development, Haudenosaunee lacrosse maintains its ancestral spirit. Players develop their skills through pickup games and community connections rather than elite academies and recruiting pipelines.
This difference is political. Every behind-the-back pass, impossible shot, and moment of creative brilliance represents Indigenous persistence in the face of cultural genocide. When Ty Thompson casually flipped his stick from left to right hand and skipped the ball behind his back past a college goalie in 2014, he was demonstrating that Indigenous lacrosse culture survived every attempt to destroy it.
The Haudenosaunee have allies in their Olympic fight. Ireland voluntarily gave up their spot at the 2022 World Games when organizers initially excluded the Haudenosaunee, with Ireland Lacrosse CEO Michael Kennedy stating, "They're taking back what is rightfully theirs." President Biden publicly declared that "their circumstances are unique, and they should be granted an exception to field their own team at the Olympics." Canada's sports minister issued a similar call.
But the IOC remains unmoved, hiding behind the colonial framework that created this injustice in the first place.
What Olympic Exclusion Means for Indigenous Sovereignty
If the 2028 Olympics proceed without the Haudenosaunee, it will be another chapter in the ongoing erasure of Indigenous peoples from spaces they created. Some have suggested the U.S. and Canada should boycott lacrosse entirely if the Haudenosaunee are excluded. Former Hampton University coach Chazz Woodson has said "I say we don't go. I say that while understanding there's major ramifications": that lacrosse will probably never make the Olympics again. "But that would be the right thing to do."
Olympic exclusion reinforces the colonial message that Indigenous peoples exist only in the past tense. It says that their cultures can be acknowledged abstractly while their contemporary sovereignty claims are ignored. The IOC can celebrate lacrosse as "the sport of the First Nations" while systematically excluding actual First Nations from competition.
The 2028 Olympics represent a moment of potential justice. The Haudenosaunee message remains the same: "We are still here. We're still going." The question is whether the IOC will finally listen, or whether the people who gave the world the Creator's game will once again be forced to watch from the sidelines as others play their sacred sport under the bright lights of Olympic glory.
But here's the harsh reality: stories like the Haudenosaunee Olympic exclusion are disappearing from mainstream coverage.
Major sports networks that could amplify these stories are too dependent on Olympic broadcasting rights to challenge the IOC's decisions. Mainstream journalism treats Indigenous sovereignty as a "both sides" issue rather than documented historical fact. Even outlets that covered #MMIW or pipeline protests have moved on to whatever generates more clicks this week.
The reality is stark: we need independent journalists who can't be silenced when corporate sponsors get uncomfortable with sovereignty stories.
Right now, less than 4% of my followers are paid subscribers. What could we accomplish with more support?
🏟️ At 5% paid subscribers: I could follow the Haudenosaunee team through their 2028 Olympic fight, documenting every visa battle and diplomatic meeting the mainstream media ignores.
📋 At 10% paid subscribers: I could investigate how many other Indigenous nations face similar exclusions across international sports, creating a comprehensive database of ongoing colonial barriers.
🎯 At 20% paid subscribers: We could develop educational content showing how the same colonial frameworks excluding the Haudenosaunee from Olympics still govern everything from tribal recognition to land rights.
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References:
Price, S.L. "They Invented the Game. Will They Be Allowed to Play It in the Olympics?" The New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2025.
Foresta, Mathew. "The Haudenosaunee Nationals' quest to play under their own flag at the Olympics." The Guardian, February 28, 2024.
Schapitl, Lexie. "Biden backs an Indigenous lacrosse team for the 2028 Olympics. It's an uphill fight." NPR, December 7, 2023.
Gardiner, Karen. "The Indigenous roots of a revived Olympic sport." BBC, July 29, 2024.
Ghoshal, Neela, Kimberly M. Zieselman, and Rikki Nathanson. "In the Contest Over Sports as a Human Right, Will Inclusion or Exclusion Prevail?" Outright Action International, October 21, 2024.
Dichter, Heather L. "Sports and US Foreign Relations." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, January 30, 2024.
Wow! I had no idea lacrosse is an indigenous sport! Thank you for researching and sharing these important facts.
I can't believe this, it's wild. I wrote The Guardian story you cite as your second reference. Thanks so much for reading and for writing about it yourself. Sometimes you think your work doesn't have much impact, so it really means a lot when you see that it has. I hope both our articles help people think more critically about the intersection of sports and justice, Indigenous Rights, and the history of settler colonialism. Again, thank you. I'll be recommending your newsletter to my readers.