As flags represent identities, values, cultural heritage and aspirations, it makes good sense that Southern Ute Indian Tribe students attending Ignacio schools see their tribal flag flying along with the Stars and Stripes and Colorado flag.
This effort of hoisting Southern Ute tribal flags – and giving them permanent places on campuses – would build unity, and note Ignacio School District’s history and relationship with the tribe and Native American culture.
That light blue flag with a Ute chief centered in the seal – surrounded by the reservation’s natural resources – against the deeper blue sky on May 9, looked just right at Ignacio High School during a Native American Heritage celebration, held by the Native American Youth Organization.
This was a first and we’d rather the flag stay up for good. Additionally, we like the idea of all students, district personnel and community members having conversations under that tribal flag.
As the Four Corners expands notions of appropriate places for Native American expression, the timing couldn’t be better.
A permanent flag would, though, require a school district policy change. Never easy as a policy change would require a public process. There’s state law to consider, too.
According to a news story in The Durango Herald on May 23, the district expected a one-day ceremonial agreement; NAYO thought it would stay up permanently. Miscommunications or misunderstandings added to confusion and aggravation.
Following backlash, the flag went up the pole again, then came down on May 24, before graduation. This stoked more anger.
The social justice group Four Borderless Corners weighed in, accusing the district of discrimination. Its Facebook post included, “The repeated exposure to cultural insensitivity within the Ignacio public schools has led to feelings of isolation, anxiety, and a profound sense of unworthiness within our youth attending the Ignacio Schools.”
Apparently, the high school’s flagpole only has two clips and can’t fly three flags at the same time. The state flag was temporarily removed to make way for the tribal flag. After NAYO’s event, a Southern Ute veteran lowered the flag. State statute calls for the Colorado flag to go back up, following the special occasion.
But flag etiquette, and school district policy and state law can be sorted out. It’s worth doing. It’s what people want.
After all, per misguided school district policy, the confiscation of a Farmington High School student’s beaded graduation cap is still fresh on our minds.
As reported in the Tri-City Record on May 18, two faculty members took the cap from Genesis White Bull, a Hunkpapa Lakota of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. The cap was beaded around the rim with an aópazan – the Lakota term for a plume or feather in the hair. They then cut the aópazan off the cap.
The thing is, when family members bead, they pray with the belief that prayers are put into the beadwork. Later, White Bull retrieved her cap from a lost-and-found box with some beadwork damaged.
Brenda White Bull, mother of the graduate, said, “When we reach a milestone in our life, we as Lakotas decorate, do our beadwork and place our plume on them.”
That story – and the following outrage – was shared around the country. It got us talking about which school policies are valuable, and those in need of evolving.
That aópazan was a source of pride. And Southern Ute Tribe flags at Ignacio schools can be, too.
We imagine the Ignacio School District will embrace this as well, as it navigates new territory to make room for a very local flag from a sovereign nation. Even if this means the Southern Ute flag gets its own flagpole.
