Bill Proposal to Change Meaning of Star on State Flag

by Destiny Washington

One Arkansas Lawmaker is proposing that a star on the state’s flag no longer represent the Confederacy.

Democratic Rep. Charles Blakes’, of Arkansas’ 36th District filed this proposal to honor the Native American’s contribution to the state.

The proposal would change the meaning of the blue star above the state’s name. Right now it stands for the state’s connection to confederacy, but could soon honor Native American tribes that were here first.

Those tribes include the Osage, Quapaw and Caddo.

This proposal wouldn’t change the design of the flag, just give it a new meaning.

Charlotte Buchanan-Yale, Director of the Bentonville Native American Museum, believes this recognition is long overdue.

“It acknowledges the indigenous people that lived here before us, it shows respect to them,” Buchanan-Yale said.

Two years earlier Governor Asas Hutchinson signed a law that stopped the celebration of Gen. Robert E. Lee on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.