First Nations Lacrosse Association (FNLA; formerly Iroquois Lacrosse Association) is a member of Lacrosse Canada with associations in both Canada and the United States centred in Native American Communities. In addition to youth associations, the FNLA also sanctions three men's

box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse. Lacrosse is Canada's officia ...

leagues: Can-Am Senior B Lacrosse League, Three Nations Senior Lacrosse League, and First Nations Junior B Lacrosse League. The FNLA does not oversee the five Haudenosaunee Nationals international teams, the Haudenosaunee men's national lacrosse team, the Haudenosaunee men's national under-19 lacrosse team, the Haudenosaunee women's national lacrosse team, the Haudenosaunee women's national under-19 lacrosse team, and the Haudenosaunee national indoor lacrosse team. These teams are recognized by

World Lacrosse World Lacrosse (WL), formerly the Federation of International Lacrosse, is the international governing body of lacrosse, responsible for the men's, women's, and indoor versions of the sport. It was established in 2008 by the merger of the prev ...

for international competition, making them the only

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

' national teams sanctioned in any sport.

Leagues

* Can-Am Senior B Lacrosse League, founded in 1969 as North American Lacrosse Association, was organized beginning in 1978. League winners compete for the

Presidents Cup The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world except Europe as that continent competes against the United States in a similar but ...

, the Senior B championship of North America. Can-Am teams have won the championship five times (1994, 1996, 2000, 2010, 2014). * Formed in 1994, the Three Nations Senior Lacrosse League is a Senior B

league. TNSLL teams compete for the

, winning the championship on five occasions (1994, 1995, 1997, 2011, 2012). * First Nations Junior B Lacrosse League is a

league formed in 2014 with the restructuring of the

Canadian Lacrosse Association Lacrosse Canada (), formerly the Canadian Lacrosse Association, founded in 1867, is the governing body of lacrosse in Canada. It conducts national junior and senior championship tournaments for men and women in both field and box lacrosse. There ...

. Four teams competed in the inaugural season. In 2015 the league merged with the Montreal Junior Lacrosse League to form a seven-team league. The FNLA league winner earns a spot in the Founders Cup, the national championship of Junior B lacrosse in Canada.

Haudenosaunee Nationals

The Iroquois Nationals men's lacrosse team was formed and sanctioned by the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee in 1983 in preparation of friendlies at the NCAA championship in Baltimore, Maryland. The Nationals lost to

Syracuse Orange The Syracuse Orange are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East ...

28-5 and Hobart College 22–14. Prior to the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

, the Nationals held the Jim Thorpe Memorial Games and Pow-Wow, a 6-team event with local and international teams in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. The Nationals achieved their first victory over the national team of England. The following year, using their Haudenosaunee passports, the Nationals traveled and toured England losing only once. After being denied membership by the ILF to compete in the 1986 World Games in Canada, the Iroquois hosted the teams for preliminary games at the University of Buffalo. In 1988, the IFL accepted the Iroquois as a full member nation. The Iroquois Nationals took part in their first international competition at the 1990 World Lacrosse Championships, finishing fifth. The first FIL sanctioned U17 box lacrosse friendly took place between the Iroquois Nationals and Team Canada during the 2015 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.

Nike deal

In 2006, the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Program signed a partnership with Nike, Inc. in which Nike will provide the Nationals with their brand uniforms, clothing, footwear, and other equipment. The company is to develop programs to "promote wellness-and-fitness activities in Native American communities throughout the region", and team members may go to speak to local groups. Team members will also assist in testing of sustainable produced sportswear for Nike's research and development of processes to use non-toxic dyes and biodegradable organic

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

. Nike is the only Fortune 500 company to have such a relationship with a Native American organization, and the Iroquois Nationals are the only such group.

Passport issues

The Nationals were unable to attend and compete in the

2010 World Lacrosse Championship The 2010 World Lacrosse Championship was held between 15–24 July. This international men's field lacrosse tournament organized by the Federation of International Lacrosse took place in Manchester, United Kingdom. This was the third time that ...

in England as the United Kingdom does not accept their Iroquois passports. The Nationals were forced to forfeit their three preliminary games. In 2015, the Haudenosaunee Nationals women's under 19 team was forced to withdraw from the 2015 U19 World Lacrosse Championship in Scotland for the same reason.

Name change

In 2022, the team formally changed their name from the Iroquois Nationals to the Haudenosaunee Nationals, citing their desire to use the endonym for their people rather than an exonym used historically by enemy tribes and European colonists.

Field lacrosse

The Haudenosaunee Nationals are the national team representing the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. First recognized by the Federation of International Lacrosse as a full member nation in 1987, the Nationals competed in their first tournament at the

1990 World Lacrosse Championship The 1990 World Lacrosse Championship was the sixth World Lacrosse Championship and was played at the WACA Ground in Perth, Western Australia, from July 7–15, 1990. The United States defeated Canada Canada is a country in North Ameri ...

, finishing fifth.

Results

Box lacrosse

2015 WILC

The Iroquois Nationals played host to the 2015 FIL World Indoor Lacrosse Championships for the first time in the tournament's history. The event took place on Haudenosaunee Territories at Tsha’Hon’nonyen’dakhwa’ Onondaga Nation Arena and the Carrier Dome near Syracuse, as well as the First Niagara Center in Buffalo September 18–27, 2015.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Iroquois Nationals

First Nations Junior B Lacrosse League

@FirstNationsLax
Twitter Lacrosse of the Iroquois Confederacy Lacrosse governing bodies of Canada Lacrosse governing bodies of the United States Indigenous sports and games in Canada Native American sports and games First Nations organizations in Canada Native American organizations Cornwall, Ontario