Dear Megaswim:
The Native Ameicans cultures of North America did not historically carry flags of their own. It has only been in recent years that Native tribes have adopted flags. There are also several distinct Souix organizations scattered all over the U.S. Many with their own flags.  The person who literally "wrote the book" on Native American flags is Don Healy, also a NAVA memeber, but I don't have his email address. You might want to contact our treasurer, Peter Orenski at TMEALF@aol.com . He has books and posters for sale showing the various Sioux flags.  I'm sorry that I couldn't be of any more help.  John H. Gamez

--and--

The various tribes of the Sioux Nation did and do have their own flags. Several years ago, NAVA published THE FLAGS OF THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED STATES, a book and an accompanying chart (the book is still in print for $25) that show the following Sioux flags:

Assiniboine & Sioux (Fort Peck) Tribes
Crow Creek Sioux
Flandreau Santee Sioux
Flandreau Santee Sioux (pre 1994)
Lower Brule Sioux
Oglala Sioux
Oglala Sioux (pre 1968)
Rosebud Sioux
Santee Sioux
Sisseton & Wahpeton Sioux
Standing Rock Sioux
United Sioux Tribes (Tribal Association)
Yankton Sioux

Dave Martucci

...and...

A: The flag you are referring to is known as the US Service Banner. It is sometimes displayed as a banner and sometimes as a flag. It is white, with a red border around all four sides and displays either a blue star for a serviceman or a gold star for a serviceman who died for his country (hence the Gold Star Mothers organization). This emblem originated in World War I (although there were some dozen or so different symbols that could be used on it originally) and was used through the Korean War. I am not aware that it was in much use after that.  Dave Martucci

...and...

In addition to blue and gold stars, already discussed, there were silver stars to denote that the member of the armed forces was serving overseas.  My aunt had such a flag (white with a blue border) in her window with 2 silver stars for my cousins who were serving abroad.  The flags, regardless of the color of the stars, were usually hung like small banners, so that
the stars were displayed vertically.  On occasion one would see flags with stars of more than one color displayed simultaneously.  John Purcell

A: The US 38 Star flag was created for the admission of Colorado to the Union on Aug. 1, 1876.  The flag became official on July 4, 1877.  This flag was official until the 43 star flag was adopted on July 4, 1890.  If it is not a reproduction (and 38 star flags are still made today) it would be quite old and rare.  I have found reputable antique dealers are good people to appraise the value.

Until President Taft issued an executive order in 1912 to make official specifications for the US flag, there were no official standards, and each company making flags had some flexibility.  I assume when the government departments requested flags they specified relative sizes, particularly the US Navy.  These probably became the standards. But they were many  variations.  Reproductions today show 8-7-8-7-8 as a pattern.  The 32 star 7-6-6-6-7, 37 star 8-7-7-7-6, and 44 star 8-7-7-7-7-8, US flag reproductions show the pattern you described of a long top row, short rows, long row (your's was 7-6-6-6-6-7).

I have forwarded your question to the NAVA webmaster and perhaps other NAVA members can add to the information. Please advise if your question was not fully answered.  Lee Herold

Dear Gabriel:
I remember Sherritt Flag Company.  The flag you have was probably made in the 1960s.  Sherritt made many flags during the Civil War Centennial, but I think they went out of business in the early 1970s.

By the way, technically the flag you have is not the Stars and Bars.  The flag properly called the Stars and Bars was the original Confederate national flag, which resembled the US flag, but had 3 bars (2 red, 1 white) instead of 13 stripes.

Your flag is a replica of the battle flag type used by the Army of Northern Virginia.

Let me know if I can be of further help.  Devereaux Cannon

A:  Dear David:
According to Dr. Richard Sauers, author of "Advance the Colors," the only Pennsylvania Regiment flags to have survived from the Continental Army days are those of the 1st and 7th PA Regiments.  There is a "Proctor's Battalion" flag, which belonged to what was called an Associator battalion formed by Col. John Proctor, and recruited in Westmoreland County, PA, but this is not a Continental Army color.  Richard R. Gideon

A: We only know about a very few Revolutionary War unit colors out of what was probably several hundred at least that existed. As for PA, we know of the following flags with greater or lesser detail:

PA Navy
2 PA Rifle Regiments captured at Fort Washington 1776
Col. Magaw's Purple Standard (He was the commander of Ft. Washington and from PA) 
Philadelphia Light Horse
Hanover Associators
Westmoreland Battalion, Proctor's Brigade of 1775 (52nd Independent Battalion of Associators)
PA Rifle Regiment of 1775, 1st Continental Regiment of 1776 and 1st PA Regiment of 1777 (same flag)
Division Color of the 7th PA Regiment of 1776
5th PA Regiment
2nd PA Regiment of 1777
4th Battalion, Philadelphia Militia (1778)
2nd PA Field Battalion of 1781 (possibly created by the amalgamation of the 7th PA and the 4th PA 1 Jan. 1781)

To answer the other question, PA adopted its first militia colors in 1799.  No official single design was in use prior. You will need to sift through whatever papers, journals, diaries, etc. you can find associated with this unit.  We would be most interested in anything you find, even if it is somewhat incomplete.  Dave Martucci

A:  The appropriate passage of the Flag Code (Chapter 174 USC Title 36) states: 

"(d) The flag should be displayed on all days, especially on New Year's Day, January 1; Inauguration Day, January 20; Lincoln's Birthday, February 12; Washington's Birthday, third Monday in February; Easter Sunday (variable); Mother's Day, second Sunday in May; Armed Forces Day, third Saturday in May; Memorial Day (half-staff until noon), the last Monday in May; Flag Day, June 14; Independence Day, July 4; Labor Day, first Monday in September; Constitution Day, September 17; Columbus Day, second Monday in October; Navy Day, October 27; Veterans Day, November 11; Thanksgiving Day, fourth Thursday in November; Christmas Day, December 25; and such other days as may be proclaimed by the President of the United States; the birthdays of States (date of admission); and on State holidays. 

(e) Display on or near administration building of public institutions:  The flag should be displayed daily on or near the
main administration building of every public institution. 

See: www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/36/174.html

My interpretation of the above is that you are encouraged and authorized by Congress to voluntarily fly the flag EVERY DAY but especially on the named holidays.  All public institutions are to fly the flag daily.  Hope this helps.  Dave Martucci

(NOTE: The flag code was recently amended to include Martin Luther King's birthday...Ed)

Now for the urgent part of this email. I have a function coming up that it would be really nice to have a flag for.  It is a convention, so to speak, of a bunch of players of a game called Ultima Online.  I would very much like to make a flag to display at my campsite.  The date is February 11th, I think.  I would like to make this flag myself.  I have sewing equipment and a little experience.  I have examined many of the yard flags for sale in my area.  Of course, some are simply printed.  Others are stitched.  The system I think would work well for this flag appears to be the design sewn into overlapping layers of material with a wide, close stitched zigzag and the excess cut away.  At least that is what it appears to be to me.  I have seen flags and kites made from a finely woven material that is pretty from both sides.  So far, I haven't been able to find such a material for sale.  

What I am asking you is two things: Could you recommend reading material to help in the manufacture of this flag? Something I can get my hands on very quickly, please. I found you on my first look at the Internet for such literature. I may have found something else by the time you read this. The next question is Could you recommend a place to buy flag or kite material? I think there is time to mail-order the material and still make the flag. I can surely find something at the local fabric store to get started with the practicing of making and accenting the flag. 

A: Hello Miles:
Congratulations on deciding to make flags!  It is really pretty easy, and it seems you have a lead on how to make them.  A very good book on the subject is "Make Your Own Outdoor Flags and Banners" by Marsha McCloskey and Linda Moore
(Feathered Star Productions, 7001 Third Ave NW, Seattle WA 98117, (206) 782-0807; 1996).  It includes a good listing of material suppliers.  Also, check the Commercial Members page on the NAVA web site at http://www.nava.org and go
to the Table of Contents, then to the Commercial Members page.  Please send me a photo of your finished work!
Dave Martucci

A: Hello:
The present Peruvian Coat of Arms was established by the Constitutional Congress the 24th of February of 1825, with Simon Bolivar presiding as 'Libertador-Presidente."  This decree also abolished the previous one created in 1822.  The symbolism is quite eloquent: The shield is divided (following heraldic terminology) per pale, per fess the base.  The first quarter is of blue with a "vicun~a" ( a relative of the llama). The second quarter is a "quina" on white, and lower quarter is of red with a cornucopia (aka horn of plenty) with golden coins. (Azure, silver, and gules following once more the heraldic terminology for the color-tincture, and metals represented.)  Each element is representative of the ;"beauty found in Peru on each of the three realms of nature," animal, plants and minerals.  As a final heraldic note, the "vicun~a" should be looking towards the left (from the viewers point of view.) but that does not seem to bother the vicun~a.
B.Rgds
Gustav Tracchia

A. Hoist (Width) .............. 1.0 B. Fly (Length) ............... 1.9 C. Hoist (of Union) ........... 0.5385 (7/13) D. Fly (of Union) ............. 0.76 E&F. Vertically between stars ... 0.054 G&H. Horizontal between stars ... 0.063 K. Diameter of star ........... 0.0616 L. Width of stripe ............ 0.0769 (1/13) The letters refer to the schematic drawing, attached.

Dave Martucci

A: Hi Adam:
Good luck on your paper. It sounds very interesting and one we would like to hear about at our NAVA Convention in October.

At the NAVA Convention in Toronto in 1990 there was a paper on signal flags that won an award.  The NAVA historian would have this paper on file.  I'll forward your message to the NAVA President who has his address.  There is another NAVA member who has done research on signal flags, Dr. Henry Moeller.  He may have more information you could use.  Lee L. Herold

Q: There has been different points of view on this matter in the Adrian area.  The local Legion and AMVETS asked me about it.  Basically someone has said there are no laws per this situation.  I think you would guess what I told them.  If anyone would care to help me with this I will be grateful.  I would like to generate some hard copies that I can take to them.  Thank you.
Robert 

A: According to the 1976 amended version of the Flag Code, language was added that allows the flag to be flown at night....as long as it properly illuminated.  We define proper illumination as being able to distinguish the stars and the stripes and the colors of the flag.  Of course, the Flag Code is a code of conduct and does not carry the weight of the law. (Robert)  is a member of NFF and a wonderful person...very patriotic.  Robert, I wish you my best.  Dave White
(NAVA Member David White is director of the National Flag Foundation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...Ed)

Size.
Materials.
Condition.
Construction techniques.
Inscriptions.

Send me a photo of it and I'll try to help you out.  Dave Martucci

Q: I'm helping my son with a school project and am trying to find info on the 13 year old who designed Alaska's state flag, Benny Benson .Can't find much info on him, do you have any? Thanks!  JTB

A: I don't really have any more information, except that I understand the contest for his winning entry was sponsored by the American Legion and that he had a lighter blue in his design.  I have no source for this information.  Also, I talked to someone in my store who knew him, and they said he was quite a promoter of Alaska, the Alaskan flag, and that he also wrote songs about Alaska including one he proposed as the Alaskan state song.  Again, this is second hand without a source.  Lee L. Herold

AND....

I don't know much about Benny Benson, but here's what I do know.

Benny Benson, a Native American, was 13 in 1926 when he designed the Alaska flag.  He was then a student at the Mission Territorial School near Seward.  His design was the winning entry in a Territorial Flag contest, for which he received $1,000 voted by the legislature to further his education.  He later became a fisherman. His sketch and the original flag made from it are now in the Alaska Historical Museum in Juneau.  ("Flag Book of the United States" by Whitney Smith [Morrow & Co., New York, 1970], pg. 103.)

I suggest you might write to the school and to the museum cited above for more details on Benny.  If you find out more, we would very much appreciate knowing what your research reveals so that we can all benefit. Thanks.  Dave Martucci

(We recently received the following updates on the Benny Benson story...Ed)

Dave--

I haven't looked at the NAVA web page since I came back from Victoria, but I've finally got a few vacation days and I've been reading it all.  It really _is_ great.

In one of the recent Q&A's was a question about the Alaska flag.  There was no e-mail address so I don't know how to give an additional response, so I'll tell you.

The definitive book is called "God Flies Benny's Flag" by Velma Moos Potter, 1989.  My copy is a paperback--I thought I got it in Juneau, but I haven't been to Alaska since the mid-80's, so I probably got it in Seattle.  It is from Frontier Publishing , 322 Queen Anne Avenue, North, Seattle, WA 98109. (ISBN: 0-939116-20-0)

It is 235 pages and is a well-researched biography of that boy and the man he became.  Ms. Potter is a retired librarian who had found it annoying in earlier years that she couldn't readily get information beyond the basics: designed by a 13 year schoolboy in an orphanage.  When she retired she researched and here it is.  Not the tightest writing, but well worth it.

The questioner might want to try to find the publisher or look for it on alibris.com (I haven't had the time yet).

--Jack Lowe

(FOTW provided the following information, which was originally posted on their site.  We thank them for their courtesy...Ed)

Appended two quick items I previously posted on the old FOTW bulletin board.

I am attaching a message I posted on the Flags bulletin board a while back.  Benny Benson died in Kodiak, Alaska on July 2, 1972.  I believe he is buried there.  he book -God Flies Benny's Flag- was available in many places in Alaska and could be ordered by any bookstore--I believe it' s still in print. ----Jack

I also have a question myself.  I read that the flags of Kiribati and Nauru were the winners of design competitions.  Have any other flags been designed in similar circumstances?

It is well known here in the States that at the time of the admission of Alaska to the Union in 1960, a design competition was held for their state flag that was won by a schoolboy for which I believe he received a nominal sum of money and the enduring admiration of students everywhere.  The winning entry is the now familiar small cluster of gold stars on a blue field.

The Alaska state flag was designed by John Bell (Benny) Benson, a thirteen year-old in an orphanage in response to a contest sponsored by the Alaska Department of the American Legion.  The prize was awarded in 1927.  The flag was adopted by the Territorial Legislature in May, 1927 as Alaska's official flag.  The flag is dark blue, with eight five-pointed gold stars in the shape of the constellation Ursa Major (the great bear--also known as the "big dipper") and a larger gold star representing the pole star, Polaris.  When Alaska entered the Union in 1959, the territorial flag became the state flag.  All the designs for the contest, as well as Benny's prize--a gold watch engraved with the flag--are in the Alaska State Museum in Juneau.  He did also win a $1000 trip to Washington, D.C.. to present the flag to President Coolidge, but never went because first his father was ill, and then President Coolidge was out of the country, so the $1000 was put to his education instead.  Benny also picked the forget-me-not as the territorial (later state) flower.  (Source: _God Flies Benny's Flag_ by Velma Moos Potter, Frontier Publishing, Seattle, 1989)

A: Devereaux,
In respect to your search for a thirteen star U.S. Navy "boat flag", I have been researching these as a side line for the past five years. Here are some observations based on my research: The U.S. Navy distinctive "boat flags" wherein the number of stars in the canton was reduced to make them more visible (i.e. larger) seems to have been adopted in the middle of the 1850's.  (One of the "boat flag" size flags that Perry carried into Japan in 1853 bears the full compliment of 31 stars, while the earliest marked boat flag I have seen from the Boston Navy Yard- and so marked- is dated 1857.)  From at least 1857 through 1861, U.S. Navy "boat flags" bore 16 stars, set in four rows of 4 stars each.  Although some have speculated that the number of stars was chosen to reflect the rebirth of the U.S. Navy in 1798 (when 16 states formed the Union), I suspect that the reason for the 16 stars was merely a matter of practicality.  The thirteen star U.S. Navy boat flag seems to have originated in 1862 (based on the surviving boat flag of the U.S.S. Ironsides, which was launched that year and sunk in 1864). The 1863 Navy Regulations list five sizes in the "boat flag" catagory, with fly dimensions respectively of 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 feet. (These sizes continued in force until at least 1880, as they are listed in Preble's second volume.)  From the period of 1862 to about 1870-1875, the boat flags bore the thirteen stars in three horizontal rows- 4-5-4. The date of transition to the most common pattern is not yet known, but the launch of the U.S.S. Saginaw (whose ship was sunk in 1870) still uses the 4-5-4 pattern.)  Somewhere in the 1870's the Navy changed the star pattern of the U.S. Navy "boat flags" to five horizontal rows: 3-2-3-2-3.  This star pattern continued in this style until the "boat flag" was discontinued in 1916.  However, there are a number of changes that were affected during the period of this pattern that distinguish flags within certain periods. These include:  1870-1885- stars in canton do not "point" in any consistent direction.  1885-1890- marking on heading lists the size of the flag, eg. "U.S.E. No. 8" brass grommets (dated 1884) replace hand whipped button holes.  1890-1900- stars are oriented in common directions; rows of 3 "up", rows of 2, "down"; the heading is now marked with size, location of navy yard where the flag was made and the date (month/year) of production.  1900-1916- stars all oriented "up", dates no longer appear on brass grommets, stars applied to canton with machine, zig-zag stitch.  

What confuses the issue of these true U.S. Navy boat flags is the adoption of the same star pattern as "patriotic" expressions of the United States centennial and the continued commercial production of these flags well into the current century for sale to the general public. So far these have been found in a number of styles and sizes, and I doubt that we'll ever have a "handle" on the variations that exist(ed).  Howard Madaus

Q: Dave:
The attachment that I have sent you is a flag that has been in my family many years. I believe it is from the revolutionary war but I cannot find any pictures or anything about it. Anything to enhance my knowledge about what this flag is would be greatly appreciated. My E-mail is  scottym@mindspring.com. 
Thanks,
Scott


A: Scott:
I received your email and attached photo. What an interesting item! It isn't Revolutionary War, but I think it is almost as rare. My guess (and at this point it is only that; I'll ask around for a consensus) is that it is 19th century (judging by the style of painting and the construction) and that it may be somehow connected to the State of Kansas (the repeated sunflower motif is an emblem of Kansas and has been unofficially since territorial days and officially since at least 1903). Maybe it was used during the celebration of the admission of Kansas in 1861. It has 49 stars on it but that must just be decorative since the US Flag only had 49 stars officially in 1959-60.

I am curious what the rest of it (out of the picture) looks like. Whatever it turns out to be, one thing is sure, it is fascinating!  Dave Martucci

Dave, Richard, and Nick:
I received Dave's e-mails with the photograph attachments earlier but could not respond until I had culled a pile of unanswered correspondence in search of several photographs I had received earlier this year.  I finally found the group, which turned out to be a letter from The Horse Soldier (a Civil War dealer in Gettysburg) dated 29 April 1999, wherein they asked about a flag that perplexed them.  Four photographs were enclosed with the inquiry, and, after checking the photographs against the three images in Dave's attachment, there is no question in my mind that the flag in both groups of images is the same.  (I had hoped that we were looking at two different "flags" of the same type, but the breaks in the stripes and the other evidences of deterioration all indicate that this is the same flag in both groups of photos.)
     Now, as to what the flag is (if it is a flag at all-- which seems somewhat questionable given the gold fringe down both sides of the blue sections; I'm not even sure if these are two disparate pieces that have been joined; but for now let's consider that it is a flag), I'm really at loss to say.  Dave's observation with the second e-mail points out a small thirteen star under the eagle's wing.  The star pattern on this is 4-5-4.  My experience to date with thirteen star flags has shows a very few flags of this pattern that doe date from the 1780's until the turn of the 18th-19th centuries; however, by far most of the surviving thirteen star flags having this pattern of stars fall into the category of U.S. Navy boat flags from the period 1862-1870. (Before 1862, I have found that the Navy's boat flags were 16 star-- at least as far back as 1857; and after 1870, the star count is 13 but in five horizontal rows, 3,2,3,2,3.)  That may be a clue to the dating of the upper section of the blue section(s) of the left of the obverse of the flag, but I cannot explain the ambitious star count (7 groups of 7 each = 49).
     One other thought passes my mind.  Is the bird in the upper section of the blue actually an eagle?  A different interpretation could find it a dove.  The object in its beak seems to be a feather or a quill (or a branch?)  In additional element integrated into the circle with the bird (eagle or dove) seems to be a figure of the globe, concentrating on the western hemisphere.  Is this possibly some sort of "peace" flag or hanging, say from between the two world wars?  If the upper design in the blue with the 49 stars represents figures from the northern hemisphere, does the flora in the lower half represent some national, regional, or continental symbolism from "south of the border"?  I'm just throwing out ideas haphazardly, because this doesn't meld with anything that fits into the 19th century flag symbolism I have seen.
Regards- Howard Madaus