Local veterans told the city council, Tuesday night, they were insulted that they were asked not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the Sept. 18 ceremony celebrating the signing of a Sister City relationship between Longmont and the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
The veterans said, before a council work session, that the Longmont Sister Cities Association requested that the American Legion honor guard not say the pledge because it might offend members of the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
“The association’s attempt not to offend anybody has offended every man and woman who has put on a uniform,” Pat Lennon, a 21-year-member of the American Legion and 14-year-member of Legion’s honor guard, told the council.
“We are veterans and we served our country honorably,” Ben Romero, a commander in the American Legion Post John Buckley Post 32. “We still say the pledge for our families and we are Americans and we are proud veterans.”
Mayor Brian Bagley — a proponent of the Sister Cities agreement with the Northern Arapaho — said the tribe includes many military veterans and they hold great reverence for the American flag. Both Old Glory and the tribe’s own flag have equal status in every ceremony, Bagley said, adding the Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming is a sovereign nation.
“They view both flags equally,” Bagley said. “They have a great love of their culture and great love of this country.”
He said they say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing songs to the American flag in their own language. Their patriotic ceremonies are just “not in the way we do things,” Bagley said.
Bagley pointed out that there is still lingering bitterness among the tribe over the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, in which Cheyenne and Arapaho — most of whom were women and children — were killed by the U.S. Army, according to historical accounts. And yet the Northern Arapaho still love this country, Bagley said.
He also said he hopes the local American Legion members will still be part of the Sept. 18 ceremony. “You folks will still be a big part of this,” Bagley said.
