IRVING — With lacrosse among the games returning for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the Seneca Nation is applauding members of the New York State Senate for adding their voice to calls to allow the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to compete as its own nation.

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.”

Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca took part in a game as part of Haudenosaunee Lacrosse Weekend at Veterans Memorial Park.

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The International Olympic Committee has thus far said it would not allow the Haudenosaunee to participate under its own flag. Eligibility rules state that countries can only participate if they have a National Olympic Committee (NOC), which requires recognition by the international community and acceptance by the IOC.

“Despite having a significantly smaller population than other national teams, the Haudenosaunee produce extraordinarily talented players and have competed successfully on the global stage,” the letter from the Senate Republican Conference on the committee for State – Native American Relations reads. “We believe there would be great benefit to a worldwide audience from watching the Haudenosaunee lacrosse team compete at the Olympics.”

President Seneca said lacrosse is more than a sport to the Haudenosaunee — 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 president said.

“Our players have competed internationally under the Haudenosaunee flag on the biggest stages, including the upcoming World Championships,” he 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.”

George Borrello

The Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy encapsulates the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora tribes, whose traditional and current territory lies within the borders of New York state.

“The game of lacrosse is one of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s greatest gifts to the world, and their exclusion from Olympic play would be both historically and morally wrong,” said Sen. George Borrello, member of the Committee on State – Native American Relations, whose district includes Seneca Nation territories. “Recognizing their sovereignty and honoring their deep connection to the origins of this sport is the right thing to do and long overdue.”

The Haudenosaunee Nationals are preparing to compete in the World Lacrosse Men’s U20 Championship in South Korea in August. In June, 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.

Seneca thanked 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,” he continued. “Ignoring the origin of the game and the culture of lacrosse in its Olympic return would be a total failure to meet that standard.”

“We urge you to favorably consider allowing the Haudenosaunee Nation to compete and be properly represented in the 2028 Olympic Games,” the Senate letter concludes. “Such inclusion would represent a historic and meaningful step forward in honoring Indigenous contributions to sport and culture on the world stage.”

Men‘s lacrosse previously appeared as a medal event in the 1904 St. Louis and 1908 London Olympics. It was later played as a demonstration event in the 1928 Amsterdam Games, the 1932 Los Angeles Games and the 1948 London Games.