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Rochester is known in many circles as an arts and music city. When it comes to sport, it is known for its soccer history and as a men’s and women’s golf hub. But our oldest sport and the only one actually created here is lacrosse. Yet, the people who invented it are not being allowed to play when it returns to the Olympic stage.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals are moving forward with preparations for international competition in 2027 which will be necessary for any country to qualify for the LA Olympics in 2028. However, even if they qualify, and as travel will remain in the US removing one barrier from past international play, international sporting rules and officiating bodies may prevent their participation.
The history of the sport was leveraged for its inclusion in the Olympics program by the LA organizers, World Lacrosse, and others. It is great that it is being included in the Olympics and that will likely lead to investment at all levels of play, but thus far systemic injustices are being replicated which will hurt lacrosse in the long term, not to mention the people being left out today.
The call for full inclusion has been going on for years. People may continue to say they support it, but lean on logistics or “process” as excuses. There need not be complex, “creative” solutions or sacrifice.
Olympic “values” actually provide the case for inclusion. As North America’s oldest sport, failure to include lacrosse would negate basic principles of the Olympic Games as a united forum for sports.
Most Americans do not care about the finer points of international law, nor most people for that matter besides lawyers. If we did, quite a bit of the other chaos in our world right now would have been dealt with swiftly by stronger institutions.
That is not to say the United Nations and ICC do not serve critical functions—they do. But, especially in today’s attention economy, we increasingly see rights vs. wrongs. In this case, there is a clear right: letting them play.
While this issue has garnered some attention and coverage, more is warranted, along with repeated requests for comment and follow up with the IOC, World Lacrosse, political leaders, and others.
While being “good” at the sport should not be necessary to warrant play, the Haudenosaunee are good and have ranked highly for decades.
To deny the ability to play sport is wrong. Not allowing the people who invented the sport to play it would already be an injustice. Further, the explicit attempt to deny nationhood to indigenous people may violate US and international law and is an additional failure.
Last year, the Biden Administration released a joint statement with Canada supporting inclusion, though both countries have new administrations since.
Every member of our state and federal delegation should release a statement (some already have) and work with the federal government and international sporting bodies to rectify this situation.
Given Republican support in the state legislature, it is not infeasible that a resolution could pass in the US Congress and failure to support one could indicate quite a bit about members. Further, even if it did not pass, a resolution could draw renewed attention to this issue which encompasses sport, sovereignty, and larger concepts of justice. The same goes for the Canadian Parliament and Governor Hochul. Offices of our politicians can collaboratively work with tribes and advocate directly with institutions like the IOC.
We should also expect media to center voices historically left out, professional teams across sports to speak out, and even high school, college, and travel youth teams to discuss what this means to sport. Schools, especially those with lacrosse teams, can make an extra effort to ensure students know the sport’s history while also acknowledging ongoing injustices affecting indigenous people today.
Perhaps Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse sports media could spend just a few minutes less obsessing about the Buffalo Bills in the offseason.
What can the average citizen do about this? First, talk about it—that really does make a difference and while I experienced a fair amount of indigenous history during elementary school, we can be doing more to ensure students know about where they live. Those playing sports, especially, should be made aware of the sport’s origins.
Local media should be covering this issue relentlessly. National media has obligations too.
Every major lacrosse organization—USA Lacrosse, the National Lacrosse League, among others—and major sporting organization including the NCAA—should activate lacrosse players and fans alike as well as the general public.
You can attend a Knighthawks game, donate directly to the national team, get merch, and follow the team’s social media.
Sports are cultural, political, economic, and, particularly in the case of lacrosse, religious.
Failure to allow the Haudenosaunee to play their game betrays history, worsens the field of play and enjoyment of sport, goes against the original Olympic values of ancient Greece, and may violate international law. There is a real opportunity to recognize sport for what it can be and bring to light its religious, cultural, and other roots in the process.
Kyle Rosenthal
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
I have read this letter several times, and with all due respect I’m still unclear as to what the author’s point is. Lacrosse is returning to the Olympic s in 2028. Assumedly the US will field a team. Assumedly there will be some sort of tryouts/competitions for US athletes to be included on that team. And certainly Haudenosaunee athletes will be able to tryout for the team and should rank among the best of the best. So what am I missing here?
Hi, to clarify, the Haudenosaunee have their own national team and would like to compete as a nation-state, but are currently being blocked from doing so. Some of the links above discuss the athletes’ decisions not to try out for the US or Canadian teams as they would like to represent their own nation, the Haudenosaunee.
Locally we all had an opportunity to learn more about the indigenous-created lacrosse game when Ganondagan had an exhibit on the game at their Arts and Cultural Center in Victor Unfortunately, the issue of exclusion in the sport world and the lacrosse game keeps returning in different forms. Thank you for writing this piece, Kyle, to update on on the current form of exclusion. I think we in NYS and in Western NY should be particularly outspoken about this issue, where lacrosse has been central to sport predating colonial occupation to the present! The Haudenosaunee have been fighting various exclusionary actions for a long time with regard to lacrosse. Become informed and raise your voices in support of Olympic participation.