Rewriting a History of the Guam Flag

In 1917, Naval Governor of Guam Roy Smith formed the Guam Militia when U.S. entry into World War I seemed imminent. Once the Militia was formed, Governor Smith felt it was “proper” that the island have its own flag on the “principle that individual states and Territories of the U.S. have flags.” In a contest that same year, he put out a call for a Guam flag design, to which Navy wife and Guam Normal School teacher Helen Paul responded. The winning design, which featured a picturesque shoreline with a coconut tree, a canoe, and a famous landmark, today remains the official territorial flag. In recent years, native Chamorro activists and nationalists have claimed that a Chamorro artist Francisco Feja designed the flag's central figure and that he gave the design to Paul who then incorporated the scene into her design. This paper will examine competing narratives on the origins of the Guam flag, including Chamorro efforts to wrestle the flag – today the most important icon of Chamorro nationalism and decolonization – from its colonial legacy.