CATTARAUGUS TERRITORY, IRVING, N.Y. – The Seneca Nation is applauding members of the New York State Senate for adding their voice to calls to allow the Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Republican members of the Senate’s State-Native American Relations Subcommittee wrote a letter to the International Olympic Committee supporting the Haudenosaunee Nationals’ request to participate in the games under their own flag. The 2028 Summer Olympics will mark the return of lacrosse to the Olympic stage for the first time in more than a century.
“The game of lacrosse began with our ancestors. It is part of our culture,” said Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca. “Our ancestors shared the game with the world after it was gifted to the Haudenosaunee people by the Creator. To us, lacrosse is more than a sport – it is a spiritual game and a game of healing, a way of bringing people together. As the International Olympic Committee prepares to bring the world together in Los Angeles in 2028, the Haudenosaunee people and the origins of the Creator’s Game deserve to be included.”
The Haudenosaunee Nationals are preparing to compete in the World Lacrosse Men’s U20 Championship in South Korea in August. Last month, the Seneca Nation hosted the Haudenosaunee Lacrosse Weekend on its Allegany Territory, featuring practices and exhibition games by the Haudenosaunee Nationals U20 team as the team completed its roster for the World Championship tournament.
“Our players have competed internationally under the Haudenosaunee flag on the biggest stages, including the upcoming World Championships,” President Seneca continued. “We want to see them – and supporters throughout the world want to see them – celebrate the tradition of the Creator’s Game in the Olympics. I want to thank the members of the New York State Senate for urging the International Olympic Committee to do the right thing and welcome our players to take the field and compete in our game. The Olympics hold the games to the standard of bringing together the world’s best athletes for the world’s greatest international sporting competition. Ignoring the origin of the game and the culture of lacrosse in its Olympic return would be a total failure to meet that standard.”
