Lacrosse comes back to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. The Haudenosaunee gave the world this game, and they are still waiting for the International Olympic Committee to let them play in it under their own flag.
On October 4, 2026, the Haudenosaunee men won bronze at the Pan-American Sixes Championships in Oshawa, Ontario, and the women finished fourth. Both results qualified them for the 2027 World Lacrosse Sixes Championships in Colorado Springs. That tournament is where most of the Olympic spots get decided, so the Haudenosaunee have a real chance to earn their way into the Games on the field. The problem is that the IOC has not agreed to let them take a spot under the Haudenosaunee flag.
Haudenosaunee means People of the Longhouse. It is the name the Confederacy uses for itself. A lot of people know them as the Iroquois, but that name was given to them by outsiders, and the national lacrosse team dropped it in 2022.
The Confederacy is made up of six nations.
The first five came together under the Great Law of Peace, and the Tuscarora joined in 1722. The Onondaga are the Keepers of the Central Fire, the place where the Grand Council meets. Most Haudenosaunee communities today sit across what is now New York, Ontario, and Quebec.
The Great Law set up a council where separate nations kept their own affairs but made the big decisions together. Benjamin Franklin studied it, and in 1988 the U.S. Congress passed a resolution acknowledging what the Confederacy contributed to the development of the Constitution.
Their flag is purple and white and comes from the Hiawatha Belt, a wampum belt that records the union of the first five nations. The tree in the center is the Tree of Peace, standing for the Onondaga.
To the Haudenosaunee, lacrosse is a gift. They believe the Creator gave them the game, and they play it for the Creator. It is also called the Medicine Game because it is believed to have the power to heal.
Traditional sticks are carved by hand from hickory. The old games were played on an open field with two poles at each end for goals, usually between clans or between the young men and the old men. There was no clock. Teams kept playing until one side reached a set number of goals.
Many Indigenous nations across North America played stickball games, and the version that grew into the modern sport came from the Haudenosaunee. French missionaries wrote about the game in the 1600s and called it la crosse, and that name stuck. The Haudenosaunee kept their own names for it the whole time.
The Onondaga name for lacrosse. It roughly means "they bump hips."
The Haudenosaunee have spent over a century fighting to play their own game at its highest level. This is how it happened.
The National Lacrosse Association forms in Canada. Montreal dentist William George Beers has already started writing rules for the game.
Beers's rulebook says no Indigenous player can play in a match for a white club unless it was agreed on beforehand.
The association turns amateur and bars Indigenous players from championship play. The people who created the game are locked out of its top level.
A Mohawk team from around Brantford, Ontario, plays at the St. Louis Olympics under Canada's name and wins bronze.
Lacrosse is played for medals at the Olympics for the last time. It shows up again only as a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932, and 1948.
The Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee forms its own national team, then called the Iroquois Nationals.
The International Lacrosse Federation, now World Lacrosse, accepts the team as a full member nation.
They play their first World Championship in Perth, Australia. It is the first international competition for Indigenous players since the 1880 ban.
The men win silver at five straight World Box Championships, losing to Canada each time.
The United Kingdom refuses to accept the team's Haudenosaunee passports. The players won't travel on U.S. or Canadian passports instead, so they forfeit the World Championship in Manchester.
The men win bronze at three straight World Championships, in Denver, in Netanya, Israel, and in San Diego.
The team, ranked third in the world, is left off the invite list for the 2022 World Games because it doesn't represent a sovereign state. After a petition passes 50,000 signatures, Ireland gives up its own spot so the Haudenosaunee can play.
The team drops the name Iroquois and becomes the Haudenosaunee Nationals.
The IOC adds lacrosse to the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Both the men and women win bronze at the World Box Championships in Utica, New York.
On January 17, the United States and Canada release a joint statement asking the IOC to let the Haudenosaunee compete at LA28 as their own team under their own flag.
The women finish fourth at the World Championship in Tokyo, their best finish ever. In October both teams qualify for the 2027 World Sixes.
Only a National Olympic Committee can enter a team in the Olympics. Since 1996 the Olympic Charter has said a new committee has to come from an independent state recognized by the international community. The Haudenosaunee have their own government, their own treaties, and their own passports, which they have issued since 1923. They do not have an Olympic committee, and under the current rules they can't get one.
The IOC's answer has been that Haudenosaunee players could play for the United States or Canada instead. That misses the point. The Haudenosaunee have competed for their own nation for more than thirty years, and the team gave up a World Championship in 2010 rather than travel on another country's passport.
The rule also has more room in it than it looks like. These places all send their own Olympic teams without being independent states, because they were recognized before 1996.
The IOC has also built a team for athletes with no country to compete for. The Refugee Olympic Team first competed in Rio in 2016. Making space for people outside the usual system is something the IOC has already done.
The IOC has said it is worried that one exception will lead to more requests, and that the Games shouldn't be a path to sovereignty. The Haudenosaunee have said that isn't what they're after. Their case is narrow. They created the sport. World Lacrosse already counts them as a full member nation. The United States and Canada, the two countries whose borders run through Haudenosaunee land, have both asked the IOC to let them play. If they earn a spot at the 2027 World Sixes, the only thing keeping them out of Los Angeles will be a rule the IOC has already bent before.
It takes about two minutes, and every name and email adds to the pressure on the IOC before the 2027 World Sixes.
Add your name to the call for the Haudenosaunee Nationals to play at LA28 under their own flag.
Sign the petitionCopy the letter below and send it through the IOC's official contact form. Adding a line about why lacrosse matters to you makes it stronger.
IOC contact pageMost players have never heard this story. Ask your coach for five minutes before practice to talk about where the game came from, and share this page.
Follow the NationalsAt the Pan-American Sixes Championships in Oshawa, the men beat Puerto Rico 15 to 13 for bronze. The women went 2 and 2 and finished fourth after losing the bronze game to Puerto Rico. Both finishes were good enough to qualify for the 2027 World Lacrosse Sixes Championships, the first step on the actual road to LA28. The Haudenosaunee are doing everything they can on the field. The decision that's left belongs to the IOC.
The Haudenosaunee women finished fourth at the 2026 World Lacrosse Women's Championship in Tokyo, their best result in five appearances. They lost the bronze game to Israel 7 to 4. Their goalie, Paige Crandall, made 51 saves across the tournament, more than anyone else there. As a goalie, that number stuck with me.
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