APTN News – A petition with more than 12,000 signatures on it is circulating on social media asking eight countries including – Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Japan, United States, Czech Republic, Israel and New Zealand – to withdraw from the 2022 world lacrosse games scheduled for Birmingham, Alabama in 2022 after the Iroquois Nationals were left out of the tournament. “The Iroquois Nationals men finished 3rd and are full members, like other countries included. But they have not received an invite despite placing third. Teams ranked lower have been selected instead.” “The World Games, which is governed by the International World Games Association (IWGA), follows the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding eligibility.

The six-nation confederacy that makes up the Haudenosaunee Nation is sovereign. The team travels with Haudenosaunee passports and competed as a nation member of World Lacrosse at the FIL World Lacrosse Championship in Netanya, Israel in 2018.

There, Canada brought home a silver medal after defeat by the United States.

“The colonizers don’t want Indigenous people to be native. Want us to be Canadian/American and history have proven that. Residential schools, blood quantum’s, passports, etc. they don’t want to acknowledge us for who we are. And it’s indigenous land AGAIN. Lyle Thompson, is an Onondaga lacrosse player and former two-time Tewaaraton Award winner who was named Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year in Major League Lacrosse last year.