[3] The inaugural tournament took place in Little Current on Manitoulin Island during Christmas break in 1971 and featured seventeen teams and 200 players.
[5] The acting president of the Little Native Hockey League is Patrick Wedaseh Madahbee, a member of Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation.
He was appointed to the position after previous president Marian Jacko, a member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, was obligated to step down following her selection to a one-year term on the Board of Directors of Hockey Canada in December 2022.
[3] Historically, the event was able to be staged in mid-sized communities, like those on Manitoulin Island, and smaller cities, like Greater Sudbury and Sault Ste.
Marie, but the ever-increasing scale of the LNHL has made it such that only larger cities like Mississauga have “sufficient rinks and hotels to accommodate all of the participating players as well as their family member and supporters.” In 2018, Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day explained that cities of similar size to Mississauga or larger are the only places capable of supporting an event at the scale of the modern Little NHL.