The years 1620 and 1775 — that’s what the Massachusetts flag is all about. One is gold and the other is silver.

Much has been written and debated about the Native American that dominates the blue shield. He stands tall and fit, portrayed in gold, and armed with a bow and arrows in his left hand, just as the arrows in our national seal are in the eagle’s left claw. Hardly a representation of weakness or subjugation, he stands unfettered and proud. Massachusetts chose to express their thankfulness for the Wampanoag Tribe that nurtured the Pilgrims in 1620 by looking back 150 years to honor them in their newly created state flag in 1777.

The Massachusetts Minutemen are also celebrated on the flag, represented by the silver star in the upper corner of the blue shield. It’s the star on the shield that holds the key to the sword and banner. Often portrayed as white, it represents the thousands of colonists who fought in the American Revolution.

The star comes from the Betsy Ross flag, the first “Stars and Stripes” to represent us as an independent country. Massachusetts took our star and put it on our own flag in 1777 to make it clear to England and the world that we were proud to be one of the 13 colonies that declared our independence in 1776. The battles of Lexington and Concord began the armed rebellion with Massachusetts’ leadership and commitment from the first shot to the signing of the peace treaty in 1783.

The heroes of our liberty are the thousands of nameless minutemen who left their plows in the fields and families in their homes to join the battle on April 19, 1775, and continued to fight until liberty was won. We honor their spirit in the crest and the motto of the state flag and seal. The bent arm with sword in hand came directly from the battle flag of the Bedford Minutemen — it was the “flag unfurl’d to April’s breeze” in Emerson’s poem.

The motto “Conquer or Die” is written in Latin on a gold banner, repeated by Patrick Henry as “Give me liberty or give me death!” The blade is up and away to warn England and foreign adversaries “Don’t Tread on Me.”

The bent arm with a sword became our state crest in 1777. In heraldry, the crest stands apart from the shield. It expresses the values of the bearer.

Ours speaks of the courage to fight for liberty. And that’s exactly what our motto repeats: “By the sword we seek peace / But a peace only under liberty.” The sword and motto were first portrayed on a seal etched by Paul Revere in 1775. The current sword is an artist’s model of a sword. It wasn’t chosen for who owned it, but for what it should look like.

It’s not meant as a show of oppression; it symbolizes the minuteman’s courage in the pursuit of liberty, including the 15 Mashpee Wampanoags who fought and died for colonial independence in the Revolution, as Native Americans have fought in every American war since.

You will see what you have been taught to see. Without education, imagination takes over. It might be easier to change the flag than to change perceptions, but it would be a sad day for all of us if we shied away from honoring the Native Americans who helped America survive in 1620, and the valiant minutemen who fought to gain our independence in 1775.

We are the only state in the nation that is both “The Birthplace of America” and “The Cradle of Liberty.” Both events are central to the history of our state, and even more remarkably, to the history of our country!

Please leave the Massachusetts flag as it is, and let it tell the story of our proud history. If the Native American tribes still feel threatened or demeaned by an unfortunate misinterpretation of the sword in the crest, then they can keep their place of honor by swapping with the minutemen to depict the Concord Minuteman crafted by Berkshire sculptor Daniel Chester French in full stature, and portray the Wampanoag Nation with a symbol of their choosing where the star has been for 250 years.

Please let your town and state representatives know it would be wrong to change the flag. Your grandchildren — whether Native American or not — will thank you!

Kevin M. Doyle, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, lives in Mashpee.

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