SUMMARY
This documentary follows The Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse Team on the road as they compete in the 2015 World Box Lacrosse Championships. For the first time ever, the Championship Games were held on an Indian Reservation, in Onondaga in upstate New York, the Capital of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Oren Lyons (Joagquisho) is an American Indian icon and probably the most widely heard orator of traditional Haudenosaunee philosophy and practice. A Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs and of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Oren Lyons has been a traditional “runner” and consistent spokesman for the elders of one of the oldest continuously operating Native governments in the Western Hemisphere.
He is recognised not only in the United States and Canada but internationally as an eloquent and respected spokesperson on behalf of Native peoples. He is a sought-after lecturer or participant in forums in a variety of areas, including not only American Indian traditions, but Indian law and history, human rights, environment and interfaith dialogue, and has received numerous honours and awards.
Oren Lyons is a living legend. In the long-distance run of Native activist history, his is a unique voice, as clear a representative of the collective traditional American Indian vision as has ever emerged through the sea of confusion and misinterpretations rendered on the subject. The perspectives held by American Indian elders, principles of appreciation and empathic tradition, are embedded in the ancient languages and particularly the foundational narratives, philosophical and ceremonial rituals, that persist throughout history. As a traditional orator and principled delegate, Lyons has succeeded in framing the issues facing humanity through an Indigenous lens that relies on ancient teachings such as the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, the Ceremony of Condolence, and cultural protocols that speak to universal values.
The curriculum and incidental history in the biography of Faithkeeper Oren Lyons are extensive and elaborate, befitting an elder of consistent human capacity and penetrating intellect.