Week 2

The current Massachusetts state flag reflects the commonwealth's colonial history in its depiction of an arm holding a sword -- distinctly colonial as a copy of a weapon owned by Myles Standish¹-- above the head of a Native American man whose weapons are positioned to indicate peace. The symbolism and imagery are derived from the state seal (pictured), originally engraved by legendary Patriot Paul Revere, lending the piece its ideological skew toward settler superiority. The clear subjugative context of this symbolism glorifies the conquest of Massachusett lands by early settlers. Contrastingly, the Massachusett people see the arrival of Europeans as an “English Invasion,” a term they use to refer to this event.² The tribe identifies strongly with its oral traditions, Medicine Ways, ritual dance, and specific worldview that is informed by their ancestral traditions. The Massachusett people’s removal from their native lands to Ponkapoag Plantation limited their ability to thrive as they once had on the lands we now occupy. I feel that a single monument to such a vast theft of land would be inadequate, given the far-reaching (both geographically and historically) implications of this forced migration. I think any memorial to the tribe’s history would preferably be designed by a member of the Massachusett tribe, but if I were to suggest an action, it would be to identify sites of importance to the tribe with signage in the Massachusett language. The scale of the lands confiscated becomes apparent upon viewing the names of the communities lost to the colonists, as well as specific areas of note to the Massachusett, and I believe that a system of simple markers identifying these places as originally known could help tribal members feel more ownership of, and belonging to, the common lands that their ancestors occupied. The alienation that people who cannot read the Massachusett language would feel could serve to reverse the dynamics of ownership and belonging in these contested spaces.

¹ https://malegislature.gov/VirtualTour/Artifact/63 (incl. image)

² http://massachusetttribe.org/the-history-of-the-neponset