Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team head to Puerto Rico to play in Sixes Cup

The Haudenosaunee Nationals lacrosse team is committed to taking up space in the game their ancestors created. 

Both men’s and women’s teams are competing in the Sixes Cup in Puerto Rico this week; their sixth PALA competition. The tournament is organized by the Pan-American Lacrosse Association, one of three Continental Federations under World Lacrosse.  The tournament runs Wednesday to Sunday.

The women’s team won bronze at the previous PALA Tournament in Florida this year and qualified for the 2026 World Lacrosse Women’s Field Championships in Tokyo. 

“Talent is quickly rising in the Nationals league,” said Jalyn Jimerson, 25, who plays for the Haudenosaunee Nationals and is a member of the Cayuga Nation in southern Ontario within the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. 

The Haudenosaunee Nationals are also campaigning to be included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles under their own flag when the Sixes sport makes its Olympic debut. The board of directors has been working with World Lacrosse to make it possible. 

“You want to see that purple and gold there. And I think that’s what should happen,” Jimerson said. 

Jalyn Jimerson said that despite the trauma her people have endured in their history, their community and their sport remains strong. 

The Nationals organization said there have been informal conversations between them, World Lacrosse and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and they hope eventually to meet with IOC president Kirsty Coventry

“We’re trying to be strategic, but [also] mindful of the state of the IOC…,” said Claudia Jimerson in recognition of the IOC preparing for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February. Jimerson, Jalyn’s mother, is a board member, director of operations for the Nationals