Canada’s sports minister is backing the Haudenosaunee Nationals’ bid to compete as a separate nation in lacrosse at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Carla Qualtrough issued a statement supporting indigenous lacrosse teams on Wednesday, hours after US President Joe Biden announced a similar stance. If the Haudenosaunee are allowed to compete as a separate nation in 2028, it will be an unprecedented moment in Olympic history.
“Lacrosse is Canada’s national summer sport. It has been played by indigenous people for hundreds of years. The Haudenosaunee are among the best in the world,” Qualtrough said in a written statement to The Canadian Press.
“When lacrosse returns to the Olympics in the 2028 Games, I hope to see the Haudenosaunee Nationals qualify and compete under their flag.”
Biden asked the International Olympic Committee to allow the Haudenosaunee to compete as their own team in the Los Angeles Games at the White House Tribal Nations Summit earlier Wednesday. This would require the IOC to make an exception to the rule that allows only teams that play as part of an official National Olympic Committee to compete in the Olympic Games.
“We hope the IOC will see it our way, too,” Tom Perez, a senior White House adviser and director of intergovernmental affairs, told The Associated Press. “If we are successful, it will not just be the flag of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy that will march at the Olympics, it will be the flag of Indigenous peoples around the world.”
The Haudenosaunee are a group of six nations whose territory covers parts of Ontario, Quebec, and upstate New York. They invented the sport of lacrosse before European colonists arrived in North America and have competed as a separate nation in international lacrosse events since 1990.
The current world rankings place Haudenosaunee men in third place behind the United States and Canada. Their women’s team is ranked seventh in the world.
Having the Haudenosaunee Nationals play their sport in the 2028 Games is in keeping with the Olympic spirit, Qualtrough said.
“This will elevate the enormous talent already on display, harnessing the best of sport to promote reconciliation,” her statement said.
Haudenosaunee players could, in theory, play for Canada or the United States depending on which country they reside in. However, Haudenosaunee players now confirm they will only play for an Indigenous team.
Lacrosse was previously competed in the 1904 and 1908 Summer Olympics. Only three teams played lacrosse at the 1904 St. Louis Games, two from Canada and one from the United States. But the second Canadian team was called the “Mohawk Indians” and was made up entirely of Kanien’keha:ka players.
David Shoemaker, CEO and secretary-general of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said Wednesday that his organization is “thrilled” to see lacrosse return to the Olympic program. The Rules of Play Committee believes that the inclusion of lacrosse represents an opportunity to embrace the calls to action issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
“COC looks forward to speaking with the Haudenosaunee Nationals Lacrosse organization to understand how we can support their goals around participation and leverage the positive impact of bringing the sport to a global audience at LA28,” Shoemaker said. “We are committed to being a collaborative partner with all parties, including the Haudenosaunee, Lacrosse Canada, IOC, World Lacrosse, USOPC and LA28 in maximizing the opportunities presented by having lacrosse on the Olympic program once again.”
The modern Haudenosaunee Nationals team was formed in 1983, and first played at the World Men’s Track and Field Championships in 1990. Players come from both sides of the Canada-US border, with the majority coming from the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation, about 40 kilometers southwest of Hamilton , or Onondaga Nation, outside Syracuse, New York.
The Haudenosaunee were unable to compete at the 2010 Men’s World Championships in Manchester, England, because they attempted to travel on Haudenosaunee passports. A travel document is a form of identification used by the Haudenosaunee people as an expression of their sovereignty.
Israel accepted the team’s passports to participate in the 2018 World Lacrosse Championships, with assurances from the Canadian government that they would be allowed to return to Canada. Ireland has also accepted Haudenosaunee passports for the 2022 Under-21 World Lacrosse Championship.
The Haudenosaunee also nearly missed out on competing in the World Games, a multi-sport event that serves as a stepping stone to the Olympics, in 2022 because they also require participating teams to have Olympic organizing committees.
World Lacrosse and several national lacrosse organizations petitioned World Games organizers to allow the Haudenosaunee to play, with the Irish men’s and women’s teams voluntarily stepping down to make room in the six-team tournaments.
—With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2023.
