Blowing in the Wind
A nations flag is a symbol of that nations history, people, and culture. Sometimes the meaning is hidden by the objects and the shapes on the flag that would otherwise seem unimportant. The history of the United States flag has always been thirteen red an white stripes with a blue rectangle in the top left hand corner. In the Blowing in the Wind gallery one can see the progression of the United States flag as it has progressed over the year. On the right are a few examples of how the flags have changed over time. The basics for the American Flag is there are thirteen red and white stripes representing the 13 original colonies that fought against the British rule. The stars in the blue section of each flag often represented the states. During the 1800 the size of the country grew quite rapidly, so multiple adaptations of the flag were created and used in very short time slots. Such as the one created in 1818. The stars are in the shape of a bigger star however this was not the only idea for a flag at that time and was actually one of two. The other flag for that time period was just like 1777 where the stars were in roes. Our current flag today was established in 1845. The US had stopped adding states because all the land in the new world was already claimed. Spain owned a large majority of the western North America, while the US owned the eastern side, while Canada controlled the frozen northern half. The stars on the flag had originally been in simple roes however in the 1820's Native Americans started fighting for their rights. During the development of the States many settlers encountered native Americans. They originally had very few rights but they eventually joined into a more European culture because of close proximity. US citizens wanted to move them out however there was no where to move them to so instead both settlers and natives had to live together. In the 1820's one could see an increase of Native American disapproval of the government. There was a large concentration of Native American culture in the south and Abey Amayeta a spokes person from the Chicora tribe demanded that the government recognize their culture permanently in American culture. This resulted in the addition of a Native American insignia to the flag. A arrow, a corn stalk and a hatchet were added in the center to represent the natural history of America no matter how advanced the country might become it still had simple roots.
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