Native Americans want flag changed
Say representations are a ‘mockery’
Stefanie Salguero grew up in Billerica not knowing her school’s Indian head mascot was a “wrongful representation” of her heritage.
Now Salguero, who is part Lakota Sioux, says it’s time for that to change.
“We cannot continue to let Native students wear this mascot oblivious to the racist institution that is put in place against them,” Salguero said outside the State House Thursday. “We must remove the seal of the state flag. We must ban all native mascots. It is a mockery.”
As historical statues and monuments face new scrutiny amid a national reckoning on racism, members of the United American Indians of New England and the North American Indian Center of Boston took to Beacon Hill with calls to revise the state’s flag and seal and to ban public schools from using Native
American imagery in their logos and mascots.
The demonstration was one of three competing protests — others were against bills on police reform and extending an eviction moratorium — that clashed briefly on the State House steps midday Thursday.
In a separate press conference, Gov. Charlie Baker said he would be “open to those conversations.”
“There’s a conversation that’s going on in states and municipalities and in some cases at the national level about many symbols and historical emblems and if people here in Massachusetts want to pursue discussions with respect to some of those, we’d be open to talking to them about it,” Baker said, adding the state Legislature would need to be involved.
Of the trio of bills activists are pushing, one would create a commission to recommend changes to the flag and seal that currently depict a Native American person with a sword held over his head. Members would include the executive director of the Commission on Indian Affairs and five others of tribal descent appointed by the commission. Another bill would stop public schools from using Native American symbolism in their team names and mascots.
Some 40 schools in Massachusetts use logos invoking Native American culture, activists say.
“Four hundred years after the Pilgrims have landed in Plymouth, it is long past time for Massachusetts to begin to reckon with its racist and damaging history with Native Americans,” the Rev. Vernon Walker of Massachusetts Peace Action said.
“We are the last state to abolish and eliminate the white supremacy represented on our flag. The time is now for change,” Walker said.
State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, and state Sens. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, joined activists before a Senate discussion on the bills.
“It is our responsibility to tell our history truthfully,” Lewis said. “Part of telling our history truthfully is replacing images and symbols that perpetuate harmful and offensive racist stereotypes and white supremacy.”