[Boston Globe] On Jan. 5, just one day before the insurrection, the Massachusetts Legislature voted to form a commission to study and recommend permanent changes to the state seal and motto. Governor Charlie Baker signed the measure on Monday. The 19th-century seal, which appears in the center of the state flag, depicts a colonist’s arm holding a sword above the image of an Algonquian warrior. Circling the man’s figure is a Latin motto that translates, roughly, as: “By the sword we seek peace, but peace under liberty.” But the flag symbolizes anything but peace, said Elizabeth Solomon, an enrolled member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. The sword represents the swinging arm of Myles Standish, a British military officer hired by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, who killed hundreds of Native people in the area around Massachusetts. The Algonquian warrior, on the other hand, has his arrow pointed to the ground in submission, as Solomon pointed out. “The flag memorializes the slaughter and attempted genocide of the multiple Native peoples in Massachusetts,” she said via Zoom this week. And while she doesn’t believe changing the flag will directly improve the way Native Americans are treated in the Commonwealth, she sees plenty of possibilities for positive impact. Children won’t see the flag when they visit the state capitol. Government mail won’t bear the seal. Everyday life gets just a little bit easier. That’s enough for Solomon.