A RENEWED EFFORT to come up with proposals for a new Massachusetts seal by July is already running months behind schedule.
The advisory commission, focused on replacing the controversial emblem, must offer up three options for the state seal, as well as the flag and the state’s motto. It must also seek public comment through at least three public hearings across the state, and submit its final recommendations to Gov. Maura Healey by July 29.
But it plans to hold its first meeting on March 20, roughly eight months after it was created. The 10-member commission, which is getting $100,000 for the effort, is still missing some appointees.
Northampton state Sen. Jo Comerford, a top advocate of the commission to change the seal and a lawmaker who represents part of western Massachusetts, expects the commission to miss the July deadline. “We are starting late, we won’t reach that, but that won’t be a failure of this commission,” she said. “It just means we’ll continue to endeavor.”
Comerford and others have criticized the seal, calling it racist or an outdated symbol of violence against Native people. The image is also on the state flag.
The seal – which dates back hundreds of years and harkens to a time when early English explorers enslaved and killed Natives – features an arm holding a sword above a Native American man holding a bow. The motto, a phrase roughly translated from Latin, states “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”
This is the commonwealth’s second attempt in five years to redesign the seal. A 20-member panel convened in 2021 couldn’t agree on a new seal despite several deadline extensions, prompting Secretary of State William Galvin to label it a “complete failure.”
Healey, after signing the new commission into law last summer, didn’t appoint the two chairs until December: Patrick Tutwiler, her education chief, and Kate Fox, the executive director of the state’s Office of Travel and Tourism.
Rhonda Anderson, the western Massachusetts commissioner on Indian affairs, a Iñupiaq – Athabascan from Alaska, and a member of the current panel tasked with changing the seal, pushed back on what she called Galvin’s “unfairly harsh” characterization of the previous commission.
“Unfortunately, there is a lack of understanding of the need to recognize colonial historical harms and take responsibility for reparations, which includes deep listening to grievances and understanding how oppression and marginalization continue today,” Anderson said in an email. “Such essential conversations are difficult, as not everyone agrees or has the same experiences.”
The first commission, which submitted its report in November 2023, suggested some concepts, such as an elm tree or cranberries, birds like chickadees and turkeys, or geography like a coastline or hills. But the commission, which was also allotted $100,000, didn’t settle on a specific recommendation.
Galvin has yet to make his two appointments to the new commission, which led to Comerford questioning him about it during a Ways and Means Committee budget hearing. “We have plenty of time,” Galvin responded, noting the upcoming March 20 meeting and adding that the idea has been “kicking around” for several years now, and cost the state $200,000.
After the exchange with Comerford, Galvin reiterated to CommonWealth Beacon his view that the previous commission became a “competition amongst various groups who wanted to either be represented or felt aggrieved or whatever.”
“The seal can obviously be updated because it’s been a very long time, and there are people who are offended by it,” Galvin said. “We shouldn’t have anything that we think is even unintentionally offending people if we can avoid it. Or inaccurate. And there has been a long suggestion the depiction of the Indian character, or Native American character, is inaccurate. Those are all legitimate criticisms. No one’s advocating no, don’t change anything. No one’s saying that. That’s not the issue. The issue is if you’re going to replace it, what are you going to replace it with, and what is the mission of the seal.”
Galvin compared changing the seal to a business swapping in a new logo. “Times change, circumstances change,” he said.
In an interview, Comerford called Galvin’s comments “disrespectful and dismissive” of the work of the previous commission. She pointed to the previous commission issuing a report, arguing the new commission isn’t “starting from scratch.”
She rejected Galvin’s comparison of the state changing its seal and a company changing its logo. “This isn’t just a color scheme,” she said. “This is going for something that sees all of us as equals, that endeavors to chart a new path forward on what is a deeply disturbing past.”
Earlier this week, a Galvin spokeswoman said the secretary still plans to make his two first appointments before the first meeting is held. She noted that Galvin also appointed two staffers to the previous version of the commission. One of the previous appointees is now involved in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution and cannot participate in the new commission, the spokesperson said, but added the seal commission should have started meeting six months ago.
Both Comerford and Anderson, the commissioner, remain optimistic that the commission will come up with a new seal and motto. “We have work to do, marking the footsteps of over forty years of pushing for the passing of the legislation to make necessary changes; it is time for a flag, seal, and motto that the residents of Massachusetts can be proud of and represent the great land on which we live,” Anderson said.
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