The Story Behind the Iroquois and Lacrosse

Last Saturday the Iroquois Nation was officially excluded from the world lacrosse championships because UK officials would not recognize their Iroquois Nation travel documents. The players could have traveled on US passports but they refused on the grounds that accepting the passports of another nation would be a strike against their sovereignty and nationality. So the world lacrosse championships were held without the nation that invented the game. Read more about the story here. For more on the history of relationship between the Iroquois and lacrosse, watch the video below.



Applications for Education
The story of the denial of Iroquois' attempts to travel on the passports of their nation could be the beginning of a lesson exploring the issues of Native American sovereignty rights. I can see myself using the story above as a modern connection to the 1830's legal attempts of the Cherokee people to prevent their forced relocation by the US government. In particular I can see connecting this to the 1832 case of Worcester v. Georgia.