A History of Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse A History of Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse By Lena Camara Lacrosse is not what tends to come to mind when Canada and sports are mentioned in the same breath, though it is the country’s national sport – in summer, at least. The sport has been around for centuries, predating even the European settlement of North America; it is believed the Native Americans invented the game of Lacrosse as early as the 12th century. Lacrosse is not only a sport, but originally was played as a spiritual endeavour, meant to give thanks and praises to the gods, a tradition which the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team follows to this day. The original version of the game was played with possibly hundreds of players at a time on a field that could range up to a mile in length and would continue for days. Given the number of players, and the physicality lacrosse demands, it is with good reason that the Eastern Cherokee name for the sport roughly translates to “little war.” The game, however, has little to do with inspiring aggression. “We play this game to give enjoyment to the Creator,” clarified Ansley Jemison, general manager of the Iroquois Nationals.

Before the game, the team gathers around their spiritual advisor who leads a traditional tobacco-burning rite, among other rituals that prepare the players to take the field. The only time lacrosse has been a medal-earning sport at the Olympics was in 1904 and 1908 when Canada won the gold medal for men’s lacrosse both times. Lacrosse has been played for demonstration in a small number of subsequent summer games, and the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) continues to push the game’s presence in order to reinstate it at the Olympics. In order to do so, the sport will need a following on at least four continents with 75 competing countries. With only 23 countries currently in the FIL, it will be some time before we see the sport in the Olympics again. Until that time, the Lacrosse World Championship (LWC) will have to do. It is the biggest of the international lacrosse championships. The LWC is played every four years, just like the World Cup, and involved a record 29 competing countries in 2010.

From its inception as a four-nation tournament until the present, the same teams have dominated: only the Iroquois, Canadian, American and Australian teams have ever placed in the top four. The Iroquois Nationals team is the only Native American team authorized to play a sport internationally. The FIL accepted the Iroquois Confederacy as a full member nation in 1987, and they participated in their first competition in 1990. Since then, the Nationals then proven their mettle. “The game is absolutely still a big part of our culture,” said Jemison, when asked about the team’s importance today. “We are very proud to represent our nation.” As part of the agreement with the FIL, Native Americans from other tribes are also eligible to tryout and play for the Nationals. The Nationals have been endorsed by Nike since 2008, and receive other funding from various sources including prominent Native American businesses. They are now a long way away from the donated equipment and airline tickets that saw them through the 1990 LWC. Under-funded at the outset, the Iroquois Nationals made a name for themselves and attracted investments and interest from around North America.

Nowadays, their players are offered scholarships and recruited by the best university teams. This summer, the LWC made news for reasons other than lacrosse. Upon travelling to Manchester for their first game against Germany, the Iroquois team was denied entry into England. The British government demanded that they carry either Canadian or American documents in order to cross the border, as their Iroquois Confederacy passports were not recognized. In the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intervened on behalf of the Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team, obtaining a one-time waiver that allowed them to travel despite their passports not containing biometric chips and current security features. More outrage was levied against the British than the American authorities, though neither was willing to give the Iroquois Confederacy passport the same privileges as the Canadian and American ones. When asked about the decisions, team members were incensed by the idea of obtaining passports of nations to which they did not belong.

Jemison quoted a member of the Nationals who said, “It’s one thing to lose a game to a team that’s better than you; it’s another to lose to a man behind a desk.” It was in 1923 that the Iroquois Confederacy began issuing passports, and for many years carriers of this document were able to travel without much problem. With tightened security measures after 9/11, the E.U. member states no longer recognize Iroquois Confederacy passports as legal documents. While holders of this passport are free to enter Canada, neither the U.S. nor Canada endorse it as an official and valid travel document. The Bloc Québecois sided with the federal government on the issue, arguing that if the Iroquois passport was valid, then Quebec would also issue its own travel documents. As for the tournament, the Iroquois Nationals were never given the chance to compete and so did not place in the championship. Every match scheduled against the team was counted as a 1-0 forfeit victory for the other nation, which Jemison felt “was a big disappointment to all of us because we were highly ranked.

We had all the tools to do well but suddenly it felt like we had one hand tied behind our backs.” Despite recent difficulties with customs, the Nationals continue to cement a presence in international lacrosse. Just this month they travelled to Hawaii to compete at a tournament, which marked the first meeting of the indigenous Hawaiian players with the Iroquois. The team has previously travelled to other tournaments around the world to represent the Iroquois Confederacy, finding little to no trouble with regards to restricted movement. The 2014 LWC will be hosted in Denver and the Nationals should have no trouble getting there to represent the Iroquois. Share this: The Iroquois THE IROQUOIS DONATE The Iroquois The Iroquois are the originators of the modern day game of Lacrosse. Shrouded in time, Lacrosse was played among the Confederacy long before the coming of the Europeans to the shores of North America. It can be said that when the Europeans first came to America, Lacrosse was one of the most popular and widespread games played across the continent and with many variations. The long stick game played internationally today belongs to the Iroquois.

The Iroquois, also known as the Six Nations, represent the indigenous people that originally occupied extensive lands in what is now New York State, southern Quebec and Ontario, Canada. Stretching from the Hudson River and Mohawk Valley through to the northern and central Great Lakes region, a confederacy was formed and it brought together the Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, Mohawk and Seneca tribes into the first League of Nations in North America. The Tuscarora joined the Confederacy in the mid-1700s to become the sixth member nation. The Iroquois name for themselves is ‘Haudenosaunee’ which means “People of the Longhouse”. The longhouse symbolizes a way of life where the Six Nations Confederacy live under one common law, think with one mind and speak with one voice. That law is called “Gien na sah nah gonah” the Great Law of Peace. The alliance of the Haudenosaunee created the first United Nations in this land, thus we maintain the oldest, continuously operating form of government in North America. We have lived in northeastern North America for thousands of years.

The people of the Six Nations currently residing in New York and Canada remain sovereign and independent. The Iroquois people identify themselves as citizens of their respective nation and travel internationally under their own passports. Historical evidence indicates that the Iroquois had a significant role in the development of democratic principles in North America and the ideas and concepts of the Iroquois form of government influenced the thinking of Benjamin Franklin, who was instrumental in the development of the American Constitution. All the nations of the confederacy speak dialects of the Iroquois language. The people of the Confederacy belong to any one of the nine family clans (Turtle, Bear, Wolf, Deer, Beaver, Hawk, Heron, Snipe or Eel) of the Haudenosaunee and share many common beliefs and traditions under the Great Law. In 1987, the Congress of the United States unanimously passes Concurrent Resolution S.76, recognizing the contribution of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) to the democratic principles of the Constitution of the United States.

Today, approximately 70,000 plus Iroquois people reside in eighteen communities in the states of New York, Wisconsin and Oklahoma, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Share this: SPORTS: Even without competing, Iroquois lacrosse team makes its point | American Indian News Service SPORTS: Even without competing, Iroquois lacrosse team makes its point Posted on August 3rd, 2010 by americanindiannews in Past News , Recent News In the doldrums of summer, a news story involving the travel obstacles of a world-class Native lacrosse team introduced the wider public to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy—inventors of the game—and to their tradition of traveling internationally on their own nation’s passports. Photo by Percy Abrams of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse - Team The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team assembled by New York Harbor with Oren Lyons, 80, Faith Keeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation. Lyons was also an All-American goalkeeper who played on the 1957 national championship Syracuse University lacrosse team with NFL legend Jim Brown.

The Iroquois Nationals, a lacrosse team made up of 23 players representing each member nation of the Haudenosaunee, also known as the Iroquois confederacy, were barred from traveling to the world championships in Great Britain on their Haudenosaunee passports, despite an offer of a one-time travel waiver from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After British officials refused to issue visas to the Nationals, ranked fourth in the world, more than 2,000 news reports told the story of the team that resolutely refused to travel on U.S. or Canadian passports. The Haudenosaunee passports, some partially handwritten, do not include new security features, including computer chips, which are expected in the post-9/11 era. But the team had traveled internationally without incident until now, which made the British and Canadian refusal so close to the tournament surprising. For the Iroquois national team, traveling on a competing nation’s passport is unthinkable. “You are asking us to denounce our citizenship for a game,” said Percy Abrams, the Nationals’ executive director. “When you come back from the game, guess what? We have denounced our citizenship.

Is that what they would do?” Passports, flags and identity cards are historically important symbols of the functioning governments of Indian nations, said Tim Johnson, associate director for museum programs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Since last year the museum has collected more than 200 flags from Indian nations across the United States and Canada, which are hung in the Potomac Atrium during the month of November. “What’s difficult for the average American to understand, and what kids don’t get in their education,” Johnson said, “is that these documents are each a symbol of functioning American Indian governments that meet regularly and govern all the time.” The museum had planned to show the Iroquois Nationals’ televised games from the 2010 World Lacrosse Championships in Manchester, England, on screens in its Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe. But on July 15 when they were scheduled to face off with England, the Nationals were in New York City, still awaiting permission to enter Great Britain. On National Public Radio, S.L.

Price of Sports Illustrated said, “To not have the Iroquois at the world championship is something that I feel would delegitimize the world championships.” Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian - A Haudenosaunee delegation crosses the U.S.-Canada border at Niagara Falls on July 14, 1928. It is the “Return of Border Crossing Privileges to all Indians First Annual Celebration,” according to information on the photo. The history of the Haudenosaunee traveling on their passports—and facing opposition from Great Britain, and Canada as a member of the British Commonwealth—is a long one, explained Johnson. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, spanning land in both present-day New York and Ontario, is a formal government established a thousand years ago. As such, it is the oldest continually operating democracy in North America, states Oren Lyons, Faith Keeper, Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, on the team’s website.

(Lyons, 80, was himself an All-American goalkeeper who played on the 1957 national championship Syracuse University lacrosse team with Jim Brown.) The Haudenosaunee hold some of the earliest treaties with the U.S. and earlier colonial powers. A 1613 agreement of peace was entered into by the Haudenosaunee with the Dutch, and a wampum belt was woven with two parallel lines to document this agreement of non-interference. It’s a policy document founded on principles of sovereignty, Johnson said, that children among the Haudenosaunee are taught to this day. “From a historic standpoint the Haudenosaunee have never relinquished their sovereignty,” said Johnson, who is Mohawk. “They have never stated they are anything other than themselves. There exists a consistent chronology of Iroquois leadership making repeated assertions of sovereignty.” In 1921, Cayuga Chief Deskaheh presented a Haudenosaunee passport to travel to Great Britain to seek aid against Canadian aggressions. He sought to speak to King George V because the treaty by which his people had their rights guaranteed was signed by George III.

He was refused a meeting, and returned home, according to the 1978 book, “A Basic Call to Consciousness,” edited by the newspaper Akwesasne Notes. In 1923, Deskaheh traveled to Geneva on his Haudenosaunee passport in the hope of speaking to the League of Nations about the violation of rights of Indian nations. But while the city of Geneva accepted him, the League of Nations refused to hear him. In 1924, the U.S. passed a law making all American Indians citizens of the U.S., and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police invaded the Six Nations to overthrow its traditional government. The Haudenosaunee notified both the U.S. and Canada that they would not accept citizenship in any other nation besides the Haudenosaunee. In 1977, Oren Lyons traveled on a Haudenosaunee passport to Geneva, this time to address the non-governmental organizations at the United Nations. And Haudenosaunee leaders have traveled on these passports for the 30 years since, Johnson said.

The Iroquois Nationals program was founded in 1983 as a league that would organize and support the playing of lacrosse among Six Nations youth. Lacrosse, considered by the Haudenosaunee to be given to them by the Creator, is estimated to be at least 900 years old, one of the oldest games to originate in North America. The Iroquois Nationals were admitted to the International Lacrosse Federation, the governing body of international lacrosse, in 1990. The Nationals placed fourth in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Lacrosse Championships, traveling internationally on Haudenosaunee passports even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks made passports and identity cards more highly scrutinized. But why would Great Britain, which gave the world “Chariots of Fire,” an Academy-Award-winning movie based on the life stories of 1924 Olympians Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams—one of whom competed for his Christian faith and the other to fight anti-Semitism—fail to grasp the Iroquois Nationals’ quest to compete?

Like these athletes of old, the Iroquois team stands for more than just sport, Abrams said. “The Iroquois Nationals serve as a declaration of our status as a sovereign nation that exists on the North American continent, which we call the Great Turtle Island,” Abrams said. “We compete nation against nations.” —- Iroquois Play Host To 11 Countries At Lacrosse World Championships : NPR Iroquois Play Host To 11 Countries At Lacrosse World Championships Embed Embed Iroquois Play Host To 11 Countries At Lacrosse World Championships Iroquois Play Host To 11 Countries At Lacrosse World Championships Embed Embed David Sommerstein From The Onondaga Nation, a Native American tribe in New York, is hosting the world indoor lacrosse championships. It's the first time an indigenous sovereign territory has hosted a major sports tournament — and it comes at a time when Iroquois brothers are the sport's rising stars. KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: There's an international sports tournament happening right now on a reservation near Syracuse, N.Y. Organizers are calling it the first such tournament to happen on sovereign indigenous land. The Onondaga Nation is hosting the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.

It's like the World Cup of lacrosse, a sport that was invented by Native Americans. North Country Public Radio's David Sommerstein sent this report. DAVID SOMMERSTEIN, BYLINE: It's a sold-out crowd at the Tsha'Hon'nonyen'dakhwa' Arena, Onondaga for where they play games. Twelve countries are competing for the gold medal, including the sports powerhouses - the U.S., Canada and the Iroquois Nationals. (CHEERING) SOMMERSTEIN: The Nationals are known for creative, lightning-quick play, and they're on their way to dismantling England 20-6. The team is led by the Thompsons, four Iroquois brothers who grew up on the reservation in this rural part of upstate New York. And they're rising stars in one of America's fastest-growing sports. MILES FARRINGTON: They're just really fast-moving and high energy. SOMMERSTEIN: Eleven-year-old Miles Farrington, here from D.C., learned to play at one of the camps the Thompsons hold across the country. He loves one of their signature moves.

MILES: Like, they come across the crease and they'll turn around and just crank it behind the back. SOMMERSTEIN: The Thompsons have their own apparel line, their own Nike cleat coming this fall. But in the glare of the sports spotlight, the brothers are known for their humility rooted in the ancient traditions of the game. Lyle Thompson won the award for best U.S. collegiate player twice last year with one of his brothers. He says it means a lot to his people to host these world games. When I ask why, it's almost like it's too obvious to answer. LYLE THOMPSON: Well, it's what, I guess, everyone does. It's what we're surrounded by. SOMMERSTEIN: Many Iroquois boys are given lacrosse sticks before they can walk. It's not just sport, it's sacred. After a team practice, the players gather in a circle with the team's spiritual advisor, Tracy Shenandoah. They pass a tobacco pipe and a thermos of medicinal tea. It's a private ceremony, but Shenandoah agrees to explain it to me. TRACY SHENANDOAH: To help strengthen their minds.

A good mind, as it prevails in this game. And refrain from anger, frustration, refrain from trying to deliberately hurt somebody else playing. SOMMERSTEIN: Playing lacrosse is different here, says Australian goalie Dillon Ningle. DILLON NINGLE: It's got a different feel to it for sure. You're not just playing lacrosse out here, you're doing it for everything else that it stands for as well. SOMMERSTEIN: The visiting players learn this is a game from the creator that can heal as well as entertain, says Oren Lyons. Lyons is an Onondaga chief, a former lacrosse standout himself and a longtime indigenous rights leader around the world. In the end, he says, lacrosse offers these national teams a lesson. OREN LYONS: Not to say they're all playing fiercely against one another, but the theme is world peace, and put your guns down, pick up a stick, you know? And we literally used to do that. I mean, we would settle - nations would settle a difference with a game. SOMMERSTEIN: The Iroquois's game against England was just a warm-up, really, for the push to Sunday's final.

Each of the three times this world championship has been played since 2003, the Iroquois Nationals have come out second to Canada. Lenny Bennett's a fan from the Seneca Nation, another Iroquois tribe near Buffalo. LENNY BENNETT: This is a one in a lifetime event here, for us. SOMMERSTEIN: To maybe see his team win on home ground, but, more importantly, for the world to see where Iroquois people and their game got started. For NPR News, I'm David Sommerstein. Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

First Peoples Worldwide » The Intersection of Sovereignty and Sport: Iroquois Lacrosse Team Blocked from World Championships over Passport Dispute Scorecards The Intersection of Sovereignty and Sport: Iroquois Lacrosse Team Blocked from World Championships over Passport Dispute For many years, the Iroquois National lacrosse team, currently ranked fourth in the world, travelled without problem to international competitions using their passports issued by the Iroquois Nation. The Iroquois Nation is bi-sected by border lines drawn by the U.S. and Canada, though many Iroquois consider themselves citizens of neither nation. As the 47-member team prepared to leave for this year’s World Championship in England, they sensed that there were problems brewing with their use of their Iroquois passports. So, they called the US State Department, only to find their calls unreturned as many staff were vacationing during the American Independence Day holiday. The team set off as planned only to be blocked from boarding their plane at New York’s Kennedy Airport due to questions about the validity of their passports.

US State Department officials offered to issue US passports on an expedited basis, an offer the team refused because it violated their understanding of Iroquois sovereignty and their belief that they were citizens of neither the US or Canada. After the story became a national media story, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton intervened and granted the team a one-time exemption to travel to the Championship games, but their problems did not end there. The United Kingdom government, which had previously said that it would recognize the documents if the US did, reversed itself and continued to block the team. With the UK steadfast in their refusal, the team cancelled its trip, sadly settling for watching from an ocean away the world championship of a sport that the Iroquois themselves helped invent. They have promised to keep fighting for their right to carry Iroquois passports as they always have. Their next international competition is in The Czech Republic in 2011. Share: Lacrosse - The Canadian Encyclopedia Sports Lacrosse Lacrosse is one of the oldest organized sports in North America. While at one point it was a field game or ritual played by First Nations, it became popular among non-Aboriginal peoples in the mid-1800s.

When the National Lacrosse Association of Canada was formed in 1867, it was the Dominion of Canada’s first governing body of sport. Lacrosse was confirmed as Canada’s official summer sport in 1994. The Canadian national lacrosse teams (men and women) rank highly in the world standings, both in field and box lacrosse. Lacrosse is one of the oldest organized sports in North America. While at one point it was a field game or ritual played by First Nations , it became popular among non-Aboriginal peoples in the mid-1800s. When the National Lacrosse Association of Canada was formed in 1867, it was the Dominion of Canada’s first governing body of sport. Lacrosse was confirmed as Canada’s official summer sport in 1994. The Canadian national lacrosse teams (men and women) rank highly in the world standings, both in field and box lacrosse. Lacrosse is a team sport in which players pass, catch, and carry a rubber ball, using sticks with a netted pouch at one end. The object of lacrosse is to accumulate points by shooting the ball into the opposing team's goal.

The early versions of the game involved large teams of Aboriginal warriors playing over a field that could be over a kilometre in length. Since that time, lacrosse has changed significantly, and there are now four distinct games in Canada: men's field lacrosse, women's field lacrosse, box lacrosse, and inter-crosse. History of Lacrosse The history of lacrosse is difficult to trace, for fact often meshes with fiction, and many aspects of the sport's history have been passed on as folklore. One of the most famous legends involving lacrosse dates from Pontiac 's Rebellion of 1763 , in which the Ottawa chief reportedly staged a game in order to distract British soldiers and gain entry to Fort Michilimackinac in what is now Michigan. First Nations warriors had played similar ball games for centuries before this early exhibition game. Aboriginal Origins Members of the various Algonquian language groups referred to early ball games as baggataway. Strong similarities among the war club, lacrosse stick, and even the drumstick, shown in photos of early Ojibwa implements, support the connection between these early ball games and the later development of lacrosse.

There is also a strong link between lacrosse and the Mohawk ball game known as tewaarathon. As with other early Aboriginal ball games, tewaarathon served a number of functions; as the game was played by a large number of warriors on fields that could be over a kilometre long, it kept young men fit and strong for both war and hunting. It could also be played to strengthen diplomatic alliances, support social conformity and economic equality, and honour the gods. In general, Aboriginal women were excluded from these games, although in some First Nations women did play ball games on their own, or with men (see Hall). Early European Accounts One of the first written Canadian references to the activity of lacrosse appears in the 1637 journals of Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf . In his journal, Brébeuf records entire villages playing each other in games of “crosse” (see Fisher).

While some authors allege that Brébeuf gave the sport its name because the stick resembled a bishop's crosier, Brébeuf's own writings mention nothing of the similarity; moreover, he does not provide a clear enough description of the activity to determine whether these ball games were the same as the game of lacrosse. Historian Douglas Fisher argues that the origins of modern lacrosse lie in the Mohawk game of tewaarathon. After the American Revolution , many Iroquois relocated along the St. Lawrence River and the Grand River . The Iroquois had allied with the British government during the war, and were forced to leave their traditional lands when the young Republic gained its independence. The Mohawk at Saint Regis, a Jesuit mission close to Montréal , played ball games so frequently that the missionary complained it interfered with attendance at church. In the 1830s, visiting anglophones from Montreal noticed the games and learned to play from their Mohawk neighbours, adopting the French term lacrosse for their new pastime. The first recorded match between anglophones and Mohawk took place on 29 August 1844.

In 1856, lacrosse enthusiasts formed the Montreal Lacrosse Club, followed soon by the Hochelaga and Beaver Clubs. When the Prince of Wales visited Montreal in August 1860, the locals staged a “Grand Display of Indian Games,” including a match between 30-man Iroquois and Algonquian teams, and another between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teams. Evolution of the Modern Sport In September 1860, one month after the Prince’s visit, a young dentist named William George Beers wrote a pamphlet that set out some rules and instructions for the game, which until then had had no written regulations. Beers, a strong nationalist, not only designed a set of rules for the game, but also replaced the deerskin ball with one of hard rubber. He became known as the father of modern lacrosse. In 1867, the sport made its first appearance in England, when Captain W.B. Johnson travelled with 16 players for an exhibition game in Fulham, near London; most of the players were from the Iroquois Nation, but some other nations were represented on the team as well.

In 1876, two squads from Canada (one Aboriginal and the other non-Aboriginal) played in front of Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. A third successful tour followed in 1883. The National Sport of Canada? Mythology surrounding lacrosse still abounds, particularly with respect to its status as the National Sport of Canada. Beers was so enthralled with the sport that he felt it should be the national game, even though, at the time of Confederation, cricket was the most popular summer sport in the land. In 1867, the Dominion's first national sport governing body, the National Lacrosse Association of Canada, was formed, adopting as its motto: "Our Country and Our Game." Beers campaigned for lacrosse to be named the country’s national game, and claimed that Parliament had made it official in 1867. However, even though many Canadians believed Beers, there is no evidence that Parliament officially proclaimed lacrosse as the national sport at that time. While there may not have been any official parliamentary record of lacrosse being proclaimed the national sport of Canada in 1867, it was arguably the de facto national sport for many decades.

In 1994, however, a zealous hockey fan and Member of Parliament, Nelson Riis, introduced a private member's bill that declared hockey the national sport of Canada. After much debate, the bill was amended to make hockey the official winter sport and lacrosse the official summer sport. The National Sports of Canada Act received royal assent in May of that year. To many lacrosse fans, however, lacrosse has always been the only national sport — and always will be. Visitors to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in New Westminster , BC, will notice that the bronze plaques listing the Hall of Famers continue to be embossed with, "Canada's National Game." Lacrosse in Canada Today There are four distinct versions of lacrosse played in Canada today: men's field lacrosse, women's field lacrosse, box lacrosse, and inter-crosse. Men's Field Lacrosse Men's field lacrosse is played by two teams of 10 on an outdoor field. The most noticeable difference between field lacrosse and other forms is the use of much longer sticks by the three defencemen on each team.

Canada has a rich history in field lacrosse, and one Canadian team — the Hamilton Nationals — competes in Major League Lacrosse, a professional field lacrosse league in North America. The Canadian national team is one of the top field lacrosse teams in the world, and competes in the World Lacrosse Championships, which take place every four years. In 2006, Canada won its first championship in nearly three decades when it defeated the United States of America 15–10. At the 2010 Championships in Manchester, England, Canada was narrowly defeated by the US team in the championship final. The 2010 World Lacrosse Championships were notable for the absence of one of the strongest lacrosse teams in the world, the Iroquois Nationals. The Iroquois Nationals represent the Haudenosaunee (see Iroquois ) on both sides of the Canada–US border; it is the only First Nations team that has been sanctioned to compete in international sporting competitions. The team was accustomed to travelling with their Haudenosaunee passports, but British officials refused to allow them entry, stating that the passports were not acceptable forms of identification.

The Iroquois Nationals had competed in the world championships since 1998, winning fourth in 1998, 2002 and 2006. However, as they did not play in 2010, they were automatically demoted to last place in the world standings. After the team launched two appeals, the Federation of International Lacrosse announced in June 2013 that the Iroquois Nationals would compete in the elite Blue Division in the 2014 Championships. Women's Field Lacrosse Women's field lacrosse is a non-contact sport played with 12 players per team. Ball movement and effective stick handling are key elements of the sport, and the shallowness of the stick's pocket makes catching and maintaining control of the ball more challenging. The first game of women's field lacrosse took place in Scotland in 1890, and the first international women’s match was played at Richmond Athletic Ground (near London, England) in 1913 between Scotland and Wales. The game spread from the British Isles to North America, although there seems to have been more resistance to women’s lacrosse in Canada than the United States (see Hall).

Team Canada has ranked among the top women’s lacrosse teams in the world. At the FIL World Cup in Oshawa , Ontario, in July 2013, the Canadian senior women’s lacrosse team reached the final for the first time in their history, losing to the defending American champions. With their silver medal, the team moved to second in the world standings. The under-19 team was ranked third in the world as of 2013. Box Lacrosse Box lacrosse was developed in Canada in the 1930s as a way to take advantage of hockey arenas left vacant during the summer months. It is the most popular form of lacrosse in Canada, and is played by both men and women (indeed, many top field lacrosse athletes play box lacrosse as well). Boxla (as it is also known) is sometimes referred to as the fastest sport on two feet. The game is played by teams of six players; rebounds and checks off the boards make the game exciting to watch, and a 30-second shot clock, which requires a team to either shoot in half a minute or relinquish the ball to their opponent, leads to a high-scoring game.

Box lacrosse is usually played on a cement surface. However, professional indoor lacrosse (which is very similar to box lacrosse) is played on a turf carpet. A number of Canadian teams compete in the National Lacrosse League, a professional indoor lacrosse league in North America, and in 2012 the professional Canadian Lacrosse League was formed. Box lacrosse is very strongly represented in Canada, and the national team has won every World Indoor Lacrosse Championship since the competition first began in 2003. The Iroquois Nationals team placed second in all three events, and was only narrowly defeated in overtime during the 2007 final. Inter-Crosse Inter-crosse, the newest form of lacrosse, is a low-risk activity, designed for schools and recreation programs. The easy-to-play indoor game uses molded plastic sticks and a soft, lightweight ball, and teaches participants the fundamentals of lacrosse: scooping, carrying, passing, and catching the ball.

Doug George-Kanentiio: Now is the golden era of Iroquois lacrosse | Ottawa Citizen Doug George-Kanentiio: Now is the golden era of Iroquois lacrosse More from Doug George-Kanentiio Published on: August 21, 2015 | Last Updated: August 21, 2015 4:29 PM EST Onondaga Redhawks #16 Neal Powless(left) and St. Catherines Saints #44 Mitch Dumont during action at Presidents Cup, national Senior B lacrosse championships, August 28, 2012 in Edmonton. Rick MacWilliam / Edmonton Journal Share Adjust Comment Print On Sept. 18, an event of great historical importance will take place on Aboriginal territory: the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) Confederacy will host the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships, the first global athletic event ever sponsored by a Native people.

Of the 700,000 or so lacrosse players in North America, an enormous and growing talent pool, the Iroquois have at the most a couple of thousand players performing at all levels of the game: peewees, bantams, midgets, juniors, seniors, on the college level and as professionals. At the world championships ( the Iroquois, from this shallow pool of highly skilled athletes, will take on the best lacrosse players from 13 nations and are expected to compete for the gold. Onondaga is 8 km south of Syracuse, NY. This is, as many hope, the next step toward restoring lacrosse to the Olympics and having the Iroquois participate as a distinct team. Lacrosse is a game invented by the Iroquois many generations before contact with the Europeans as an alternative to war and conflict among communities and nations and as a contest which promotes peace and physical healing. At one time it was played by hundreds of contestants on fields stretching for a couple of kilometres long characterized by matches which lasted for days. It requires stamina, accuracy, mental and physical toughness and exceptional skills with the netted stick.

The Iroquois played the game throughout the summer. During the winter time, when the rivers and lakes were frozen, they unnetted their curved sticks and batted a ball across the ice, yelling “ha-gee!” whenever they were hit – the Mohawk word for “ouch” and a possible origin of the word “hockey.” Once the Europeans had established large, stable towns they took to leisure activities and adopted lacrosse as a spectator sport. It became the official game for the new nation of Canada by the 1860s. It was adopted not only in the U.S. and Canada but was taken by the Mohawks across the ocean where games were played before English royalty and clubs formed thereafter. But the Iroquois were perhaps too dominant and by the 1880s were banned as teams from national and international matches. There was one exception. At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, lacrosse was a medal sport and the Canadians sent two teams: one made up of Non-Natives and the second composed of all Mohawks.

The Native team won the bronze but the game itself was rejected as a medal sport with the exception of “exhibition” status in 1928, 1932 and 1948. At the Games in Los Angeles in 1932, the Iroquois played several teams but that was the last time they were acknowledged on the international level until the formation of the Iroquois Nationals in 1983. When box lacrosse was created in 1930 to fill otherwise empty hockey arenas, the Iroquois found that version much more to their liking and skills with its emphasis on speed, hard checking and stickhandling. The Iroquois formed local and travelling teams which crossed the country: stars such as Angus “Shine” George, Angus” Rock” Thomas, Robert Porter and Harry Smith (Jay Silverheels) filled stadiums from Vancouver to New York City. With the arrival of the Second World War, box lacrosse faded for a while but it began to reclaim its popularity in the 1960s led by the legendary Gaylord Powless and followed by the formation of the National Lacrosse League in the 1970s.

A few years later the Nationals gave international exposure to some of the best players in the world and led to a new National box lacrosse league with the All American Barry Powless leading the Rochester Knighthawks to prominence. Other Iroquois were recruited to play at the college level with more All Americans: Neal Powless, Cody Jemison, Sid Smith, Gewas Schindler and the Tewaaraton winners Miles and Lyle Thompson. The Golden Era has arrived. The Nationals proved their abilities when they won three consecutive silver medals in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships while the Iroquois Juniors won bronze for the field games in 2012, beating the Americans along the way. In 2014 alone, the teams from Six Nations won three of Canada’s top lacrosse titles: Founders Cup, Mann Cup and the Minto Cup with the Onondaga Redhawks securing the President’s Cup as the top Senior B team. The Game is rooted deep in Iroquois history and is bearing remarkable fruit. For the first time in modern history an aboriginal nation is hosting a world championship and it is appropriate that lacrosse is the sport.

It is inevitable that lacrosse will one day takes its place as an Olympic Sport and entering that arena will be the Iroquois Nationals, the purple and white banner declaring not only their dominance of the game but their standing as free nations in the world. Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk, is the co-founder of the Native American Journalists Association and served as a Trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian. He was editor of the international journal Akwesasne Notes and is the author of “Iroquois on Fire” among other books. He may be reached via email: Kanentiio@aol.com World Event History & Results | FIL World Event History & Results Women U19 Men’s World Championship © 2014 Canada Lacrosse – Canada upsets the USA 8-5 for its third all-time gold medal at the 2014 World Championship in Denver, CO. The initial World Championship was a four-team invitational tournament that coincided with Canada’s centennial lacrosse celebration in 1967. The Mt. Washington (Md.) Lacrosse Club represented the United States and won the tournament.

Seven years later, Australia celebrated its lacrosse centennial, and the U.S. fielded an all-star team to compete in a similar international invitational tournament with Canada and England again. It was here that the concept of holding a world championship tournament every four years was born and the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) formed. In 2008 the ILF merged with the International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA) to form the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL)—the present governing body for both men’s and women’s world championship lacrosse. The U.S. has captured nine World Lacrosse Championships, including the most recent event in 2010 hosted in Manchester, England. Canada has captured three championships throughout the history of the event with it’s most recent championship coming in a stunning 8-5 upset of the US at the 2014 World Lacrosse Championship in Denver, Colorado. Canada will defend it’s championship at the 2018 Men’s World Lacrosse Championship in Manchester, England, 12-21 July 2018. Year * The 1967 team was the Mt. Washington Lacrosse Club from Baltimore, Md.

Men’s U19 World Championship A record-high 14 teams competed in the FIL U19 Men’s Lacrosse World Championship in Coquitlam, B.C., Canada from July 7th through July 16th, 2016. © 2016 FIL – Team USA’s 2016 U-19 squad comes back from a 6-0 first quarter deficit to win an eighth straight championship, downing Canada 13-12 in Coquitlam, BC. Down 8-2 at the half, the US outscored Canada 11-4 in the second half in their come-from-behind gold medal victory. Photo: Paul Yates The Blue Division teams, comprised of the top five finishers from the 2012 U19 Men’s Worlds, included Canada, the United States, the Iroquois Nationals, Australia and England. Red Division teams were made up of Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and Mexico, and the Green Division included entries from China, Ireland, Scotland and Korea.

The 2016 world tournament saw debuts at the U19 level for six of the teams: Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, China and Ireland. The USA came back from a 6-0 deficit to defeat Canada 13-12 on Saturday, July 16th in front of a standing-room only crowd. Ryan Conrad scored with eight seconds remaining coming off a screen and burying the ball, capping off an unbelievable comeback for the Americans who trailed 8-2 at the half, giving the Americans their eighth title on the U-19 world stage. The USA is the only country to have won the gold medal in FIL’s U19 Men’s event, winning in 1988, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2008, 2012 and 2016. The next U19 World Championship will take place 9th – 18th July, 2020 in Limerick, Ireland ( ).

Year Limerick, Ireland World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC) was sponsored by the International Lacrosse Federation through 2007 and and is now sponsored by the sport’s unified governing body, the Federation of International Lacrosse. SYRACUSE, N.Y. (September 27, 2015) Canada’s world dominance in box lacrosse continued with 12-8 victory over the Iroquois, earning Canada its fourth consecutive world indoor championship and stretching its all-time record to 23-0 in WILC play. Photo: Coyote Magic Action Shots. The inaugural event was held in Hamilton, Kitchener, Mississauga, and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada in May 2003. National teams from Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Iroquois Nation, Scotland and the United States participated. Canada won gold defeating the Iroquois Nation in the final by a score of 21-4. The United States took the bronze. The most recent WILC was held at the birthplace of lacrosse on the Onondaga Nation’s native grounds in Syracuse, N.Y.

Thirteen teams competed in the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, including six new nations (Finland, Germany, Israel, Serbia, Switzerland, and Turkey). The medal results were the same as the previous three championships with Canada earning the gold, the Iroquois taking the silver and the U.S. winning the bronze. Surprising newcomer, Israel, finished in 4th. The remaining order of finish was England 5th, Ireland 6th, Czech Republic 7th, Australia 8th, Finland 9th, Turkey 10th, Germany 11th, Serbia 12th, and Switzerland 13th. Canada’s dominance in box lacrosse continued as it remained undefeated in WILC play at 23-0. SEE RESULTS PAGE: WILC 2015 The 2019 WILC will be played in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. Year * The inaugural WILC event was held in Hamilton, Kitchener, Mississauga and Oshawa, Ontario.

Women’s World Cup © 2013 FIL – Team USA dominated its competition at the 2013 Women’s Lacrosse World Cup in Oshawa, Ontario. The US went 7-0, outscoring the field 127-35 in route to the gold medal. Photo by Jay Johnston via Game Day Photography The International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA) was formed in 1972 to promote and develop the game of women’s lacrosse throughout the world. Inaugural members were Australia, England, Scotland, Wales and the United States. The number of member countries has grown rapidly as lacrosse popularity has spread. The IFWLA World Cup started in 1982 as an international lacrosse tournament that is held every four years, except in 1989 when it had only been three years since the 1986 IFWLA World Championship. The first World Cup was hosted in Nottingham, England. The United States team has won every World Cup except 1986 and 2005 where it finished second behind Australia.

In 2007 the IFWLA merged with their men’s lacrosse counterpart, the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF), to form the Federation of International Lacrosse (FIL) – the current governing body of international lacrosse championships. In the latest event, Team USA made it two straight gold medals and seven overall when it defeated host Canada 19-5 at the 2013 Women’s Lacrosse World Cup in Oshawa, Ontario. Upcoming World Cup event: • 2017 Women’s Word Cup — 13th – 22nd July 2017, Guildford, England Year ??-?? Guildford, England * Extra Time; Three additional minutes each way/straight change of ends. If after “extra time” the score is still tied, then three minute halves are played on Sudden Death basis (first goal wins). ** Sudden Death Overtime; first goal scored in overtime is the game winner. Women’s U19 World Championship © 2015 FIL – Canada (7-1) held off a United States rally to win its first FIL U19 Women’s World Lacrosse Championship gold medal.

The USA (7-1) earned its second silver medal after winning four straight golds in 1999, 2003, ’07 and ’11. Photo by David May via DEphoto. The International Federation of Women’s Lacrosse Associations (IFWLA) held its first U-19 World Championship in 1995. Australia defeated the United States 5-4 in Haverford, Pennsylvania. The U.S. then beat Australia in four straight finals since then. In 1999, the U.S. defeated the Aussies 15-8 on their home turf in Perth. They doubled-up on Australia in 2003, this time winning the championship 21-8 in Baltimore, Maryland. The U.S. women made it three straight golds in 2007 by defeating Australia 18-3 in Peterborough, Canada. The U.S. won its fourth gold in a row in 2011 in Hannover, Germany edging their Aussie rivals 14-12.

In the latest U19 Women’s Championship in July of 2015 in Edinburgh, Scotland many new story lines emerged: Canada Golden, U.S. settles for Silver. After losing to the U.S. in the first game of pool play, Canada won seven straight games — including an impressive 17-3 win over Australia in the Semifinals, and a 9-8 victory over the U.S. to win the Gold. England wins historic bronze. England built a 9-3 lead early in the second before the Aussies roared back with a furious 6-1 rally to bring it to within one goal, 10-9, with 1:30 left. England held the Aussies scoreless through the final minute and thirty to preserve a 10-9 win for the bronze. Australia does not medal. For the first time in the history of the tournament, Australia did not play for the gold and finished out of the medals in fourth place after being upset by England in the bronze medal game. New Zealand finishes in 5th. The Kiwis surprised everyone with a 10-8 victory over Japan for 5th place.

Previous finishes for New Zealand were 10th in 2007 and 11th in 2011. The host nation and location for the 2019 Women’s U19 Championship event will be determined in late 2015. Year Now Is the Golden Era Of Iroquois Lacrosse by Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk On September 18 of 2015 an event of great historical importance took place on aboriginal territory: the Onondaga Nation of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois) Confederacy will host the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships, the first planetary athletic event ever sponsored by a Native people. Of the 700,000 or so lacrosse players in North America, an enormous and growing talent, pool the Iroquois have at the most a couple of thousand players performing at all levels of the game: peewees, bantams, midgets, juniors, seniors, on the college level and as professionals.

At the WILC ( : Onondaga is 8 km south of Syracuse, NY) the Iroquois, from this shallow pool of highly skilled athletes, will take on the best lacrosse players from 13 nations and are expected to compete for the gold. This is, as many hope, the next step towards restoring lacrosse to the Olympics and having the Iroquois participate as a distinct team. Lacrosse is a game invented by the Iroquois many generations before contact with the Europeans as an alternative to war and conflict among communities and nations and as a contest which promotes peace and physical healing. At one time it was played by hundreds of contestants on fields stretching for a couple of kilometers long characterized by matches which lasted for days. It requires stamina, accuracy, mental and physical toughness and exceptional skills with the netted stick. The Iroquois played the game throughout the summer and during the winter time, when the rivers and lakes were frozen, they unnetted their curved sticks and batted a ball across the ice, yelling "ha-gee!" whenever they were hit-the Mohawk word for "ouch" and the origin of the word hockey.

Once the Europeans had established large, stable towns they took to leisure activities and adopted lacrosse as a spectator sport becoming the official game for the new nation of Canada by the 1860's. It was adopted not only in the US and Canada but was taken by the Mohawks across the ocean were games were played before English royalty and clubs formed thereafter. But the Iroquois were perhaps too dominant and by the 1880's were banned as teams from national and international matches. Yet there was one exception. At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis lacrosse was a medal sport and the Canadians sent two teams: one made up of Non-Natives and the second composed of all Mohawks. The Native team won the bronze but the game itself was rejected as a medal sport with the exception of "exhibition" status in 1928, 1932 and 1948. At the Games in Los Angeles in 1932 the Iroquois played several teams but that was the last time they were acknowledged on the international level until the formation of the Iroquois Nationals in 1983.

When box lacrosse was created in 1930 to fill otherwise empty ice hockey arenas the Iroquois found that verions much more to their liking and skills with its emphasis on speed, hard checking and stickhandling. The Iroquois formed local and traveling teams which crossed the country: stars such as Angus "Shine" George, Angus" Rock" Thomas, Robert Porter and Harry Smith (Jay Silverheels) filled stadiums from Vancouver to New York City. With the arrival of World War II box lacrosse faded for a while but it began to reclaim its popularity in the 1960's led by the legendary Gaylord Powless and followed by the formation of the National Lacrosse League in the 1970's. A few years later the Nationals gave international exposure to some of the best players in the world and led to a new National box lacrosse league with the All American Barry Powless leading the Rochester Knighthawks to prominence. Other Iroquois were recruited to play at the college level with more All Americans: Neal Powless, Cody Jemison, Sid Smith,Gewas Schindler and the Tewaaraton winners Miles and Lyle Thompson. The Golden Era has arrived.

The Nationals proved their abilities when they won three consecutive silver medals in the World Indoor Lacrosse Championships while the Iroquois Juniors won bronze for the field games in 2012, beating the Americans long the way. in 2014 alone the teams from Six Nations won three of Canada's top lacrosse titles: Founders Cup, Mann Cup and the Minto Cup with the Onondaga Redhawks secured the President's Cup as the top Senior B team.

Question: In 1998 the Iroquois nation sent its first team to the world championships of which sport?
Answer: Lacrosse