An Interview with Rex Lyons | Pt. 2: The Interview

An Interview with Rex Lyons

Pt. 2: The Interview

The Haudenosaunee Nationals and Sovereignty

I canceled a (distanced) coffee date with an old friend to prepare for my interview with Rex Lyons. I was so nervous; how could one person assume so many roles? A lacrosse player, coach, cultural ambassador, businessman, musician, producer, grandfather, the list goes on. Furthermore, I prepared some questions that I was nervous might be met with anger and hostility. Not anger towards me exactly, but simply towards the situation. The situation, naturally, being the fact that Mr. Lyons’s nation, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, is consistently denied entrance to participate in the global competition of a sport that his people created and gifted to the rest of the world. 

The second Rex hopped on the other end of Zoom, however, my nerves eased a little as he greeted our colleagues with a warm smile, and shortly after, a booming laugh. When we got into the meat and potatoes of the interview, the “touchy topics” some might say, I was fully reassured that this was an important conversation to be having. He did not meet my inquiries with anger or hostility, but rather patience and understanding. He’s spent his whole life fighting to be seen, to be visible, and yet when yet another person asks him to share his story, he does so with grace and empathy. 

Mr. Lyons effortlessly connected the dots between the impending climate crisis, the current crisis of COVID-19, and the fight for sovereignty in ways that I was never able to put words to. And he kindly implied that this is knowledge that Indigenous Nations have held for centuries. He shared with me, 

“There’s no mercy in nature. It does what it does. And if you don't adhere to those universal principles and laws that govern us, there will be consequences. The tree of peace is our symbol for the Haudenosaunee, The Haudenosaunee Confederacy. It’s a metaphor for those universal laws that govern the whole earth. And we (the Haudenosaunee) were taught to never challenge those laws. Never. Because you will fail.” 

This was a recurring theme throughout our conversation: Western civilization’s incessant challenge of the laws of nature in the name of “progress”. And for what? Money? Well, folks, look where that has gotten us. Hundreds of thousands of deaths from a pandemic many aren’t taking seriously and the slow, yet exponentially increasing, demise of our earth, the one home we all have in common. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy has experienced just one case of COVID-19. When the pandemic hit the Americas, they hunkered down in the name of the community and wellbeing for the public. One quickly gets the sense that the Haudenosaunee practice collectivism over individualism. 

The collectivist nature, according to Rex, was only heightened by the establishment of The Haudenosaunee Nationals in 1983. 

“I think one of the best things that ever happened to the Haudenosaunee was playing together on the same team. That dynamic brought us and all our communities closer together. We were always close and interacting, but it goes a step further when you’re on the same team. There is nothing more enthusiastic than Nation spirit when it comes to lacrosse.”