The Western Massachusetts-based Change The Flag movement is part of a decades-long effort to replace the state flag. Director David Detmold says the state legislature has heard calls for change from Indigenous groups for over half a century, and has been officially deliberating over the issue since the mid-'80s.
“Massachusetts is the last state still flying a flag of overt white supremacy in America today,” Detmold said. “Any child could look at it and say a white hand holding a sword over the head of an Indigenous figure with a Latin motto that boils down essentially to peace under the sword. Any third grader, and all the third graders have to study this symbol in social studies class as part of the core curriculum could say this is a terrible symbol. Can't we do better? Can’t we change it?”
The effort is currently in the hands of an advisory committee that hasn’t met since late 2025, and is sitting on 48 finalists for a new flag design whittled down from around 1,100 submissions after a call to students and artists.
Shawn Stevens is a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, who were pushed out of the Northeast by European colonists 200 years ago and are now based in Wisconsin. In recent years, the community has worked to reestablish ties with its former homelands. Stevens didn’t mince words about the message sent by the Massachusetts flag:
“I usually don't get too upset about mascots and things like that, unless they're very, very despicable. And this one, I can't stand by and say this one's not bad. It's bad. It's terrible,” he said.
This spring, two Berkshire communities – Sheffield and Egremont – voted to sign on to the Change The Mass Flag campaign, joining other towns in the county like Williamstown, Great Barrington, Becket, Lee, Windsor, Stockbridge and Egremont. On June 8, the town of Holden became the 88th community in the commonwealth to back the movement since 2018, meaning the movement had earned the back of a full quarter of the state’s municipalities.
Next month, activists will walk across Massachusetts to raise awareness for the cause, beginning in Williamstown and going all the way to Boston. Detmold says Healey isn’t living up to her promises without acting on the flag change.
“Governor Healey, we're waiting on your inaugural pledge. You said you would take down barriers of structural racism,” he said. “You represent yourself as the first gay governor in Massachusetts, openly gay governor, the triumph of an oppressed minority to full equity. There are 60,000 Native people living in Massachusetts today, and many more who come here for work and college, and they are asking you, their leaders are asking you, to take down this flag of oppression and violence against Native people. It's time to act.”
Reached for comment, a Massachusetts Executive Office of Education spokesperson said, “Seal, Flag & Motto Advisory Commission Co-Chair Kate Fox is working with the new education secretary, Dr. Stephen Zrike, to schedule the advisory commission’s next meeting and the public listening sessions which will inform the process going forward.”
