Displaying national, tribal, and state flags appropriately (12/19/20)
Q: I have a protocol question. The Montana state house just constructed a flag display. It appears all ten flag poles are of the same height and are in a semi-circle. The U.S. and Montana state flags are in the center, flanked by four tribal flags. Wouldn’t it be correct to have the U.S. flag to the observer’s left facing the capital building, then the 8 tribal flags, and to the far right the Montana state flag? Wouldn’t the tribal flags supersede the Montana flag since the tribal flags represent Native American nations? — James Croft
A: This query, about the protocol status of Native American tribal flags, is coming up more and more and this response is probably far more than you needed. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal entities, currently styled as “domestic dependent nations” with another 11 in the process of seeking recognition. Recognition by the U.S. acknowledges that dependent Native American tribes have limited “rights of sovereignty” but are not in and of themselves sovereign nations. These limited rights allow them self-government and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to establish the legal requirements for membership. They may form their own government, enforce laws (both civil and criminal), tax, license, and regulate activities, zone, and exclude people from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money.
Many, but not all, of these tribes are vexilliferous. As the popularity of Indian gaming rose in the 1980s and was codified in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, Indian casinos became more prevalent and there was a modest surge in the adoption of tribal flags. (At Paramount we called then “cop-car-door” flags, as most placed the tribal seal on a plain field.) However, their use was mostly confined to the casinos or the administrative buildings of the tribes (or their central meeting rooms). The flags were rarely officially encountered off of tribal property. This has begun to change. On 18 January of 2003 the first major Lewis & Clark Bicentennial event took place at Monticello, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Eventually, as a part of the subsequent “signature events” and the National Park Service’s “Corps of Discovery II” traveling museum/roadshow, flag displays represented all 17 states which the Corps of Discovery traversed, and many of the 56 tribes they encountered along the way, at times including the appropriate eastern tribes’ flags as well. (NAVA members Peter Orenski and Ted Kaye played key roles in tribal flag procurement and display.)
The question of protocol came up: “Where do the tribal flags go? And in what order?” Since the Flag Code is silent on the subject, organizers decided that the states would go after the U.S. and other federal flags (e.g., military), either by date of ratification of the U.S. Constitution or alphabetically in English. This was because the states are the internal political subdivisions that create the “Union” represented by the U.S. flag.
Dealing with the tribes presented another challenge. Are they sovereign nations? The answer was no, they are dependents of the U.S. and not internal political subdivisions. However silent the Flag Code, other U.S. federal level actions have shed some light on the status of tribal leaders and the tribes they represent. On 29 April 1994 President Clinton invited the leaders of 566 tribes to the White House to discuss economic development, tribal sovereignty, health care, education, and government-to-government relationships. This was the first such meeting since 1822, and it changed and upgraded the way the federal government dealt with tribes. Leaders from 322 tribes attended and during the meeting Clinton pledged to uphold the government’s trust obligations to all tribes, outlining three guiding principles for federal-tribal relationships: 1. To respect tribal values, religions, identity, and sovereignty, 2. To provide full government-to-government partnerships between the federal government and the tribes, and 3. A commitment that the federal government would “improve the living conditions of those whom we serve”. Since that time tribal leaders have been considered as co-equal with state governors.
The question became how were the tribal flags to be placed? Do they go in order of creation? In order of federal recognition? The only practical answer was to arrange them alphabetically, in English. This was the protocol followed throughout the events of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial, the first modern, nationwide intermingling of U.S., state, and tribal flags. Among the other official tribal flag displays are those in Oklahoma’s Indian Flags Plaza in Tulsa, which displays 35 of Oklahoma’s 36 federally recognized tribes, and now Montana’s flag plaza, which displays eight flags. In both cases they seem to display them alphabetically in English as well. Your query about the placement of the flags on co-equal poles is interesting, and the answer in Montana’s case is that the preferred protocol would be the U.S. on its own right, and not in the center, as the press photographs indicate. The notion that a tribal flag would be flown superior to a state is highly unlikely, especially within that state. Some tribes assert that they are “sovereign” nations and act accordingly, mostly in sporting events, but this protocol is not universally accepted. —
Jim Ferrigan, former retail sales manager, Paramount Flag Company.