Jan. 17 (UPI) — The United States and Canada on Friday officially endorsed an effort by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of indigenous tribes to compete in lacrosse under its own flag at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The Haudenosaunee Nationals all-star team has been engaged in a quest to compete as a North American tribal nation at the Los Angeles Olympics as the sport of lacrosse is returning to the Olympic stage for the first time since 1908.
Since team members include indigenous people from six tribes across both the United States and Canada, both countries as well as the International Olympic Committee must take steps to affirm their recognition of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy as a sovereign nation for the Nationals to compete in Los Angeles.
U.S. President Joe Biden gave his enthusiastic backing to the effort in December at the third annual White House Tribal National Summit, and on Friday, U.S. and Canadian leaders called on the IOC to allow the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to compete under its own flag.
The Haudenosaunee, comprised of the Mohawk, Oneida, Tuscarora, Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga peoples, “invented the sport of lacrosse nearly a thousand years ago,” the joint statement said. “They consider the sport a treasured part of their cultural heritage, and this sport has since enriched the world.”
“Given the unique and exceptional circumstances of the Haudenosaunee’s historic connection to this sport, and their Men’s and Women’s teams continuously ranked participation in international competitive lacrosse for almost half a century, we believe that a narrowly scoped exception is appropriate,” the two countries said.
The Nationals’ decades-long effort to appear in the Olympics took a big step forward in October when the IOC announced lacrosse would be included in the games as an official competition for only the third time, and first since the 1908 games in London.
Lacrosse was later featured as a demonstration sport in three Olympics: Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932 and London 1948.