The Iroquois are the originators of the modern day game of Lacrosse. Shrouded in time, Lacrosse was played among the Confederacy long before the coming of the Europeans to the shores of North America. It can be said that when the Europeans first came to America, Lacrosse was one of the most popular and widespread games played across the continent and with many variations. The long stick game played internationally today belongs to the Iroquois.

"It doesn't really matter who wins.  Its how you play.  The spirit with which you play the game"

Oren Lyons is the honorary chairman of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team.  He is Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy and a leading advocate of American Indian causes. Lyons is a member of the Human Rights Division of the United Nations and one of the authors of "Exiled in the Land of the Free."

At birth, Lyons was named Joagquisho, Bright Sun with a Strong Wind. He was raised in the traditional lifeways of the Iroquois on the Seneca and Onondoga reservations in northern New York state. He dropped out of school in eighth grade-"the teachers didn't like me, but I was lucky to understand early that it wasn't about me, it was racism." He was drafted in 1950, returned to the reservation three years later and was then recruited by the coach of the lacrosse team at nearby Syracuse University. (A lifelong lacrosse player, Lyons was an All-American in this sport, which was invented by the Iroquois. The Syracuse University team had an undefeated season during his graduating year.)

In 1970, Lyons returned to the Onondoga Nation Territory, a hilly and wooded 7,000-acre tract outside Syracuse. Although he was a member of the Wolf Clan, one of seven traditional family groupings within the Onondoga Nation, it was a Turtle Clan mother who summoned him back to the reservation to sit in council.

As a Faithkeeper, Lyons is not paid for his work. In fact, none of the Nation's officials are paid; the work is simply a required responsibility. (That the U.S. Congress can vote itself a raise is irresponsible and a sign of greedy times, claims Lyons.) Therefore, in addition to his position on the Onondoga Council, Lyons is a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he is director of Native American Studies within the department of American Studies. Lyons also cofounded a national Indian newspaper, Daybreak, and with Seneca teacher and journalist John Mohawk, he edited Exiled in the Land of the Free, a major study of the Indians' impact on American democracy and the U.S. Constitution.

Chief Lyons has received numerous honors and awards, including an honorary law degree from Syracuse University. In 1990, he received the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor, and in 1993 he received the National Audubon Society's Audubon Medal for service to the cause of conservation, as well as the first International Earth Day Award from the United Nations. In 1992, Lyons organized a delegation of the Iroquois Confederacy to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. While in Rio, Lyons was invited by the secretary general of UNCED, Maurice Strong, to address the national delegations. Also in 1992, Lyons became the first indigenous leader to address the U.N. General Assembly, in New York.