Panel recommends replacing Newton’s city seal because it is disrespectful to Native Americans

A mayor-appointed panel in Newton is recommending the city change its seal.

The group says that after soliciting feedback, it has determined that the seal’s scene, which depicts a white man preaching Christianity to indigenous Americans, “lacks historical context and accuracy, glorifies the erasure of Indigenous culture, and is disrespectful to the Massachusett Tribe.”

The current seal dates back to 1865 when Newton’s selectmen voted to adopt it. It depicts English missionary John Eliot proselytizing to a group of Native Americans under an oak tree, “exhorting them to convert to Christianity and adopt English customs,” the panel wrote in its recommendation.

Beneath it is the word “Nonantum,” which is what Newton was called when it was made a Christian settlement. Above are the words “Liberty and Union,” and an outer ring displays the years of Newton’s founding, incorporation as a town, and its incorporation as a city.

According to the panel, city seals of this kind were popular in the years after the Civil War.

“Images of Native Americans were popular as symbols of American identity separate from Europe. Art and fiction portrayed Indians as ‘noble savages,’ a ‘vanishing’ people to be remembered with reverence, rather than as contemporaries with claims to land and rights of their own,” the panel wrote in its recommendation.

The panel said it solicited community input about the seal over the course of a year through an online survey, a public meeting, and letters from community members, including local Indigenous leaders. One group member also surveyed students at Newton North High School.

According to the panel, a large majority of respondents favored changing the seal.

“Indigenous respondents pointed out that the Native people depicted on the seal are faceless and shown in a passive or subservient position,” the panel wrote in its recommendation.

“Numerous respondents found the seal’s scene, in which an English Puritan preaches to Native people the error of their ways, to be offensive and not in keeping with how Newtonians see themselves or want the world to see them.”

The panel did say that there was a “small minority” of people who felt replacing the seal would be erasing history because it has been used for over 150 years.

Ultimately, the panel made the following recommendations:

1. Keep the circular shape of the seal.
2. Replace the scene of John Eliot evangelizing.
3. Remove the word “Nonantum” and possibly add “Quinobequin” — the Massachusett word for the Charles River, or Cohannet — which is what the area was called before 1864.
4. Consolidate the city’s founding dates to simply say “Founded in 1630 on Massachusett land,” with the possibility of adding the years of Newton’s incorporation as town and then as a city.
5. Retain or omit the words “liberty and union” depending on the context of the new scene depicted in the seal.

As for what the new seal’s scene could depict, the panel recommended local landmarks like the Charles River or community buildings. They said prominent themes people suggested during input included nature, community, education, progressivism, global connection, and inclusivity.

“Pictured is a Colonial authority telling a people that their ways of living and worshiping are wrong. Certainly, most Newtonians would not want a symbol of cultural arrogance to represent their city made up of many faiths and cultures,” the panel wrote in its conclusion.

The next step towards changing the seal is having Newton’s city council vote on whether or not to change it. If the council approves changing the seal, the mayor would then hire a design team to build upon the panel’s recommendations.

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