Arkansas governor supports effort to change flag’s meaning from Confederate symbol

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said he supports an effort that would change the meaning of the star on his state flag from honoring the Confederacy to instead recognizing Native Americans for their contributions to the state.

The blue star on the flag now represents the Confederate States of America.

But legislation is under consideration to change the legal meaning of the star — without changing the design of the flag itself — so that it would represent the Quapaw, Osage, Caddo and other Native American tribes that inhabited the state.

“I don’t know that we need to recognize Arkansas in a state of rebellion,” Hutchinson told The Associated Press on Monday. “I think we’d be better off recognizing those nations, from the Indian tribes to others, that we’ve been under.”

{mosads}“Whenever you see the hurt it brings to a significant part of our population, I don’t think it’s worth it,” he continued.

“I think you ought to strive as a state to remove that hurt and this seems like a reasonable approach to that,” he also said. 

His comments come a week after a House committee voted to reject a proposal to change the meaning of the blue star depicted above the state’s name on the flag.

Hutchinson told the news agency that if another proposal emerges during the legislative session to change the state’s law as it pertains to the flag he would support it because “it’s the right thing to do.”