CAMBRIDGE, MA — The Cambridge City Council voted to support a state bill that would create a commission to look into the possibility of changing some of the images on the state flag, after a number of people came forward asking for the city to support it. Although the vice chair asked if they could make a formal request to remove the flag display in the chamber, the mayor said he would first ask the city solicitor if it was breaking any rules. Officials said there may be a vote on this in the future.
“Maybe we can’t be held responsible for what happened in 1665, but we can be held responsible for what happens now,” said Mayor Marc McGovern during the city council meeting. “This is important and I’m glad that we’re doing this.”
The state seal was adopted by Governor John Hancock and the Council on December 13, 1780 and made official by the General Court on June 4, 1885, is circular and bears a representation of the arms of the Commonwealth encircled with the words, “Sigillum Reipublicae Massachusettensis” or Seal of the Republic of Massachusetts. The final form of the seal was determined by a statewide contest.
The flag was approved for the Commonwealth in its final form on July 3, 1971; before that, the other side depicted a green pine tree, according to the state secretary’s office.
The flag also depicts the disembodied arm of Myles Standish holding a sword over a shield with a Native American standing inside. The Native American is holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in another.
Standish is known for establishing the Plymouth Colony, but also for his brutality toward the native peoples.
A number of native Neposnet people are believed to have been decapitated by Standish. Two headless skeletons believed to be the remains of Wituwamat and Pecksout killed by Standish in 1623 were dug up in 1830 and their remains were interred at the Old North Cemetery in North Weymouth, said Jodi Purdy-Quinlan, who has done research into this, and is a distant relative of Standish.
The juxtaposition of Standish’s arm and sword over the Native person, so close to his head, is what many have taken issue with.
“The state flag and seal is an offensive violent symbol that separates the state from America’s greatest ally the American Indian,” said Cambridge resident Joaquin who has lived in Cambridge since the 1990s. “It is an expired declaration of war.”
Several people voiced their agreement for a resolution to support a bill that proposes changing some of the images on the state flag.
Tom King, who identified himself as a Cambridge resident since the 1980s and a Hopi Indian, said he was concerned.
“I don’t think the flag or the seal really reflects the current state of people. We are people. We all know this. We should act as we want to live up to the ideal that we respect each and every people,” he said.
Linda Meisels who works with third grade students at the Baldwin on a project related to this, read some letters from students to the city council about changing the flag:
“Our first reason is because it’s impossible to have peace with a sword. Our second reason is: It’s oppressive. Pilgrims are holding Native Americans down. Our third reason is it is unequal treatment for Native Americans,” she read.
Cambridge resident Sofia Rose Wolman asked the council to consider supporting the resolution to change the state flag in an email calling it racist:
“If we can hear that this imagery on this flag is deeply violent, if we agree that it invokes genocides and white supremacist values, that we recognize the grievance and harm experienced and expressed by the Wampanoag people and other individuals and communities. We might ask if it is enough to change the State Seal and Flag. Of course not. But an inclusive process here creates space for us all to consider what the work of our cities leaders, communities must be for our collective tomorrows.”
Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan said supporting the resolution was the least the council could do.
“We are living on stolen land,” he said during the meeting.
The mayor said he’d talk to the city’s city solicitor to see if there were any legal reasons to keep the flag in the city council chambers.
Previously on Patch:
Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).
[CORRECTION: An early version of this story incorrectly indicated the Cambridge City Council voted to remove the state flag from council chambers. No vote was taken on the matter and the flag remains.]