Abstrakt: |
abstract:The grizzly bears on California's state flag and seal represent the state's natural history and, less obviously, the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt against Mexico. This Manifest Destiny-inspired action was celebrated by the delegates who defined the seal at the Constitutional Convention of 1849, and then by the legislators from the Native Sons of the Golden West who established the flag in 1911. These chauvinists concealed the beliefs behind their design choices by controlling the evidence they created. This article recovers their motive—racial domination—and its vehicle, the myth that the Bear Flag Revolt created California. Activists who disrupted the Bear Flag Sesquicentennial in 1996 expressed these concerns but lacked the primary source evidence cited here. The shared history of the seal and the flag compromises the suitability of the flag and seal as state symbols. |