HaudenosauneeNationals.com
In 1932, the sport of lacrosse was put on display for the world to see at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Canada and the United States played in a series of demonstration games in front of 75,000 spectators at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Canada had a pair of teams flying under their flag during the process leading to the Summer Games. One of them was an All-Star team from Six Nations. 
Fast forward nearly a century, and the Haudenosaunee Nationals are staring down an opportunity to fly their own flag and represent Indigenous peoples on the world stage at the 2028 Olympics, which will also be held in Los Angeles.
But the road to the Olympics has been a long one with many bumps and obstacles along the way. The journey started in 1983 when the Iroquois Nationals team was formed by a group featuring legendary Syracuse goaltender Oren Lyons, Richard Hill, and stick-maker Wes Patterson.
Oren’s son, Rex, played for the inaugural team and helped begin to pave the way for the then-Iroquois Nationals to make their debut globally.
“In its inception, they asked if they could really do this and what it was going to take. Because there would be political implications. Then, there were questions of, ‘What are we going to call it, and how will we get support from the Grand Council?’ All of those things had to be ironed out,” Rex Lyons said. “Once we got the ball rolling, we had to put the team together, which was a challenge in itself because we come from different territories. We had full schedules and day jobs and that kind of thing. So, it was a real challenge at the start.”
During the mid 80’s when the team was founded, there were only four member nations in World Lacrosse – the United States, Canada, Australia, and England. After seven years of working towards appearing in a major competition, the Iroquois Nationals played in the 1990 World Lacrosse Championships in Perth, Australia.