Dear Friends:
Finally, after a six-month delay in the governor’s appointment process, the advisory commission to select a new design for the Massachusetts flag, seal and motto held its first, virtual meeting on Thursday, March 20th.
It was a positive meeting, reflecting a ‘let’s get this done!’ attitude among the ten commissioners, four of whom are Indigenous leaders from the area now called Massachusetts.
The healthy balance of Indigenous leaders on the new advisory body will, hopefully, ensure that the voices of the people who have been most harmed by the current Massachusetts flag and seal will be heard in the selection process for a new state symbol, and in the public education component of the commission’s charge.
In addition to selecting a new design for the state flag and seal, the enabling legislation requires “that the advisory commission shall develop recommendations for implementation of… educational programs to help residents understand local Indigenous history and the historical underpinnings of the previous and new seals, mottos and flags from an Indigenous perspective.”
Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, who co-chairs the new advisory commission with Kate Fox, Director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, opened the meeting by saying, “This is about embarking on a critical journey. It is crucial to recognize the gravity of our task: to create new emblems that will represent the values of the Commonwealth… to continue to inspire pride and unity among the people of the Commonwealth for generations to come.”
Jim Peters, Director of the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs, noted that his father, the late Mashpee Wampanoag Medicine Man John Slow Turtle Peters, first introduced legislation to change the flag and seal of Massachusetts with former state representative Byron Rushing in 1985.
The legislature has been studying – and stalling on – this matter for 40 years.
He admonished the commissioners: “It’s time for us to get our heads together and make something positive come out of this.”
Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag elder Elizabeth Solomon, who served on the previous flag and seal commission with Peters, reminded the rest of the commissioners that “the Commonwealth is named after our tribal community.”
Western Massachusetts representative to the Massachusetts Commission on Indian Affairs Rhonda Anderson, of Inupiaq-Athabascan heritage, greeted the commission in her language and said, “It is time to see the end come,” for the current state symbol – a white settler’s hand holding a sword over the head of an Indigenous figure, with a Latin motto that translates: She seeks a Quiet Peace Under the Sword, but with Liberty.
Anderson said, “We need to move forward to do something we can all take pride in.”
Traditional Arts Program Officer for the Mass Cultural Council Summer Confuorto, of Gros Ventre, Cree and Mi’kmaq heritage, said that revising the Massachusetts flag, seal and motto, “has been on my radar for my entire adult life.”
Co-chair Kate Fox said, “The goal is to use the great work of the prior commission to develop our recommendations, and get it done.”
No date has been set yet for the commission’s next meeting, and an archive of the first meeting has yet to be made available.
Fox expressed her intent to quickly issue a Request for Proposals to professional designers, asking them to submit designs for a new flag, seal and motto for the Commonwealth.
But no mention was made in the first meeting of a call to the general Massachusetts public to submit their own design ideas, a procedure that was followed successfully in Minnesota when their state flag (which depicted an Indigenous man riding off into the sunset as a white settler arrives to plow the land) was changed in 2024.
In Minnesota, the design for their new state flag was chosen from among 2,500 design submissions from the general public.
A similar process of public engagement was envisioned in the enabling legislation Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed off on last year, which stipulates “that the advisory commission may create a public process and hold public hearings to solicit design ideas from the general public… and shall hold not less than three public hearings in geographically diverse locations across the Commonwealth to solicit public input.”
For many years, young artists from elementary schools, amateur vexillologists and professional designers have been hoping for a chance to submit their design concepts for a new flag, seal and motto for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
We hope the new commission will allow the general public the opportunity now to submit their design ideas for consideration.
When co-chair Fox mentioned her plan for holding public hearings in three locations across the Commonwealth, she suggested the town of Plymouth as one possible location, along with “Greater Boston, and the Pioneer Valley (sic), or the Berkshires.”
We hope that friends who worked so hard to bring the issue of changing the flag and seal forward at town meetings in Worcester County – Nipmuc territory – the broad center of the Commonwealth, will take a moment today to write to commissioner Fox and her colleagues urging them to consider scheduling a fourth public hearing somewhere in the center of the state.
Here is the way to do that, or to submit any other comments to the new advisory commission: massflagandsealfeedback@mass.gov