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Lacrosse, America’s Oldest Sport, Returns to LA28

  • Writer: MIP Author
    MIP Author
  • Jul 9
  • 5 min read

Updated: Aug 8

Men from Kanien’kehá:ka / Mohawk Nation at Kahnawà:ke, Canadian lacrosse champions, 1869. The image is credited in external records to James Inglis / Library and Archives Canada
Kanien’keháka Mohawk Nation at Kahnawàke, Canadian lacrosse champions, 1869

When lacrosse returns to the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, it will carry a story far older than the modern Olympic Games. LA28 has scheduled lacrosse for July 24–29, 2028, at Exposition Park Stadium in Los Angeles, using the fast-paced Sixes format. Sixes is played with six players per side across four eight-minute quarters, giving the sport a quicker, more compact Olympic version.


For many viewers, lacrosse may look like a modern stadium sport: speed, sticks, helmets, quick passes, and rapid scoring. But the deeper story is much older. Lacrosse comes from Indigenous nations of North America, especially the Haudenosaunee, whose homelands include what is now northern New York and parts of Canada. The sport’s Olympic return is not just the return of a competition. It is the return of an Indigenous game to one of the largest stages in the world.



"A Game Long Before Olympic Medals


Lacrosse is often described as North America’s oldest team sport. Haudenosaunee versions of the game are commonly dated to around 1100, though Indigenous stick-and-ball traditions across the continent are varied, older, and deeply rooted in community life. Among the Onondaga Nation, lacrosse is considered sacred and is also known as the Medicine Game, a game given by the Creator and connected to healing.


Early lacrosse games did not look like today’s regulated sport. Some matches involved 100 to 1,000 men or more, with wooden sticks, small deer hide-wrapped balls, and fields that could stretch for miles. Games could last for hours or even days, and they could serve social, diplomatic, ceremonial, athletic, and sometimes conflict-resolving purposes.


The equipment itself reflected Indigenous knowledge and skill. Early sticks were made from wood, and some used netting or pockets made with animal materials such as deer sinew. The game combined movement, endurance, design, ceremony, and community responsibility in a way that made it much more than recreation.



Lacrosse Is Part of a Larger Indigenous Stick Ball Tradition


Lacrosse is not the only Indigenous game built around speed, sticks, teamwork, and a ball. Related stickball traditions have long been played by Native nations across the Southeast, including Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, Seminole, Yuchi, and others. Each nation has its own rules, meanings, equipment, and traditions, so these games should not be treated as one single sport with one single origin story.


The Chickasaw Nation describes stickball, or Itti’ kapochcha to’li’, as “little brother of war,” a game historically used to settle conflicts and build strength. The Choctaw Nation continues to support stickball through tournaments, teams, youth programs, and cultural workshops for making sticks and balls. These living traditions show that Indigenous athletic knowledge did not disappear into history; it continues through community practice.


In the Southwest, the Tohono O’odham women’s game Toka is another important stick-and-ball tradition. Toka is still taught and played by women and girls, with handmade sticks and game pieces carrying cultural meaning. That connection matters for Arizona readers because it reminds people that Indigenous contributions to sport are not only located in the Northeast. They extend across the continent, including here in the Southwest.


Choctaw men playing stickball (Ishtaboli), a traditional Native American sport that is a precursor to modern lacrosse. Engraving late 1870s (specifically featured in editions around 1876–1877)
Choctaw men playing stickball (Ishtaboli), a traditional Native American sport that is a precursor to modern lacrosse. Engraving late 1870s (specifically featured in editions around 1876–1877)

Lacrosse and the Olympics: A Long Gap


Lacrosse has appeared in the Olympics before, but not often. It was a medal sport in 1904 in St. Louis and 1908 in London, then returned only as a demonstration sport in 1928, 1932, and 1948. LA28 will mark its return as an Olympic medal sport after a 120-year gap.

There is also an Indigenous Olympic history attached to that earlier period. In 1904, a Mohawk team competed in Olympic lacrosse while officially representing Canada. That history makes the 2028 return even more layered: the sport’s roots are Indigenous, Indigenous players have been part of its Olympic story before, and the question of Indigenous representation remains part of the conversation today.



The Question of Haudenosaunee Representation

The Haudenosaunee Nationals are recognized in international lacrosse and compete on the world stage as an Indigenous national team. Their participation in the Olympics as their own team, however, remains complicated because Olympic teams generally compete through National Olympic Committees. That means the creators of the sport face a different set of rules than countries recognized within the Olympic system.


World Lacrosse, LA28, and others have discussed ways to honor the sport’s Indigenous origins while working within Olympic rules. Whether the Haudenosaunee will compete under their own flag at LA28 remains unresolved, but the issue has become one of the most important cultural questions surrounding lacrosse’s return. The sport is going back to the Olympics; the larger question is whether the people who gave the game to the world will be represented in a way that recognizes that history.


To these Native nations, the ball game was far more than mere recreation. Often referred to by the Choctaw as the "little brother of war" (ishtaboli), these massive games could involve hundreds of players and were highly physical. They were used for community bonding, spiritual ceremony, and even as a diplomatic alternative to warfare to settle territorial disputes between tribes the Choctaw, the Sioux (Dakota), and the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe). Ball Players" created by American artist George Catlin in 1844
To these Native nations, the ball game was far more than mere recreation. Often referred to by the Choctaw as the "little brother of war" (ishtaboli), these massive games could involve hundreds of players and were highly physical. They were used for community bonding, spiritual ceremony, and even as a diplomatic alternative to warfare to settle territorial disputes between tribes the Choctaw, the Sioux (Dakota), and the Ojibwe (Anishinaabe). Ball Players" created by American artist George Catlin in 1844

Why Sixes Was Chosen for LA28


The Olympic version of lacrosse will be Sixes, a newer, faster format designed to help the game grow internationally. World Lacrosse competition includes several disciplines, including field lacrosse, box lacrosse, and Sixes, but Sixes is the version selected for Los Angeles. The LA28 tournament will include six men’s teams and six women’s teams, with a qualification pathway running through continental championships, World Lacrosse Sixes Championships, and final qualifying events.


That growth is already visible. Brazil became World Lacrosse’s 86th member in May 2023, and World Lacrosse now lists 97 member nations across four continental federations. Lacrosse’s return to the Olympics is helping turn a game with deep Indigenous roots into an even more global sport.



A Return, and a Reminder


Lacrosse’s return to the Olympics is exciting because it brings speed, strategy, and athletic drama back to the Games. But its deeper importance comes from where the game began. Long before stadium lights, television coverage, sponsorships, or medals, Indigenous communities were playing stick-and-ball games that carried meaning far beyond the score.


For the Museum of Indigenous People, the story of lacrosse belongs within a larger truth: many parts of modern life, from food and science to governance, medicine, art, architecture, and sport, carry Indigenous knowledge within them. These contributions are not frozen in the past. They are living, practiced, adapted, and still shaping the world.


To learn more about Indigenous contributions to the culture, science, technology, and arts of the United States, visit CONTRIBUTIONS, a special exhibit at the Museum of Indigenous People, open February 13 through July 31, 2026.


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