Hadley’s has become the seventh town to vote to approve a commission to change the image on the Massachusetts flag and seal. The flag has become a symbol of controversy between those who want to keep the current image and those who feel the flag needs to be changed.
When Edmond Garrett designed the image on the third Massachusetts flag and seal in 1898, he couldn’t have imagined the changes that took place in our society in the intervening 121 years. We should have a flag that uses imagery that represents our feelings and values today. We need to fix the flag and seal.
At first glance, the picture on the flag appears to be an “Indian” with a bow and arrow on a shield. Some people say that the flag honors the Indians. But I don’t think so.
The more I looked into it, the worse it looked. Below him is a ribbon with Latin writing, “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.” They didn’t mean “Liberty” for the Indians. Above him, is an arm holding a sword over his head. I wonder what that could mean? But we don’t have to guess. Edmund Garrett left us detailed written explanations.
He writes that the arrow points down, showing that the Indian has been “pacified,” which is the politically correct word for killed. The sword is modeled on Myles Standish’s broadsword, which points toward the man’s head, in case he gets any ideas. The bow is from an Indian “killed in Sudbury in 1665.” To ensure accuracy, the body of a “real Indian was exhumed” from a burial ground and used as a model. Such an honor.
But they were afraid that the guy on the flag wouldn’t “look Indian enough,” so they used the head of a different person, Thomas Little Shell, a Chippewa from Montana. Garrett called him, “A fine specimen of an Indian.”
So the head of the guy on the Massachusetts flag isn’t even from this state, but from Montana. Don’t you think we should have the head of someone from Massachusetts on our state flag? Finally, the reason the person on the flag is shown holding an arrow is because his people got the shaft.
Speaking of heads, the clothing of the person on the current flag was based on images of Metacomet, particularly his red flannel belt, who lead a war against the English in 1675. After he was killed, they put his head on a pike outside of Plymouth for more then 20 years. I don’t think they did that to “honor” him.
I think we should change the picture on the flag, from a composite of a Native American, to a composite of the famous dead white presidents from Massachusetts history. John Adams’s head, because he was really smart. Calvin Coolidge’s body, because he was really thin. We could exhume his corps to ensure accuracy.
What about honoring John Kennedy? What body part of his was he famous for? His bad back. Let’s put it on our new state flag. Don’t forget forget John Quincy, we could use his ears because nobody’s ever heard of him. The final symbol on the flag is that the guy should be wearing sneakers because all those people who make up the new composite ran for president. But I digress.
Sure, it’s easy to make fun of the current flag because it’s a relic of a bygone age, a time in American history when we didn’t care about the depiction of minorities and people of color. That’s why the meaning of old flag, like it our not, is a celebration of our so-called “triumph” over native peoples.
We need a new flag and seal for our modern times that expresses our values, based on current historical scholarship. It’s time to run this new idea up the flagpole and see if people salute.
Andy Morris-Friedman is a resident of Hadley.