The Iroquois are ready for LA28.
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Memorial Day weekend is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with family and friends as summer approaches, with three days of festivities filled with delicious food, great music, and, depending on your preference, great lacrosse.
For those who enjoy the fastest game on two legs, Memorial Day weekend is the culmination of the NCAA lacrosse season. This year's tournament features powerhouses Syracuse, Cornell, Maryland and underdog Penn State, which beat Notre Dame last weekend to secure a spot in the Final Four. This will be only the third time the Nittany Lions have appeared on the final weekend of the lacrosse season.
For most of its history, lacrosse was a game of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region, played by top prep schools and colleges across the United States. In recent years, the game’s popularity has spread to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, with the University of Denver becoming the first collegiate team west of the Mississippi to win a national championship in 2015. Lacrosse is now thriving in England, Ireland, Japan, Australia, and Israel.
But long before national titles were won and statistics began, when lacrosse sticks were still made of wood, the game was invented by the Six Nations tribes who created it on this continent nearly 1,000 years ago. Formerly known as the Iroquois, the Six Nations include the Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, and Tuscarora peoples. They are now better known as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, or simply the Haudenosaunee.
Some of the sport’s greatest players were born and raised in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Mohawk Cody Jamison led the Syracuse Orangemen to the national title in 2009, scoring the game-winning goal in overtime. Sid Smith, a Native defenseman from Six Nations, Ontario, was also a key player on that championship Syracuse team. Tehoka Nanticoke, Austin Staats, Corey Bomberry, the Powless family, and many others have paved the way for young members of the Confederacy to succeed in today’s sports.
But none have had as significant an impact on the game itself as the Thompson brothers of the Onondaga Nation, who made waves in the lacrosse world in the 2010s. Lyles, Miles, and Jeremy each left their mark on the game that continues to be celebrated to this day. Lyles, in particular, is considered one of the greatest players in history. He holds the record for most points by a player and has twice won the Tewaaraton Award, the highest honor for student-athletes, in 2014 and 2015. The trophy itself is a bronze sculpture of a Mohawk playing lacrosse.
“Traditionally, we are given [a lacrosse stick] in the cradle when we are children, and as we grow up, it is passed down to us,” explained Jeremy of the Thompson clan. “When we leave this earth, it is given to us in the coffin. So, you see, from birth to death, it is with us, spiritually.”
Lacrosse will be featured in the Olympics for the first time since 1948 when the event is held in Los Angeles in the summer of 2028. The Haudenosaunee, currently considered the third-best team in the world, are on the sidelines. To compete in the Olympics,
Sourse: theamericanconservative.com
