A flag for the American Indian people - the Thunderbird Nation flag

The late Russell Means, Indian activist

I came across this picture of Russell Means today and it fitted with something I had an idea for recently. That being a flag for the American Indians, their own.

Russell is a man I admire, he was looking to make change, change for all. His wisdom was another thing that I liked. He spoke a lot of sense.

My design was what I call the 'Thunderbird nation flag.'

I realised that those Indian people who crafted items had no 'brand' to say this is a genuine item made by a person with Indian heritage. So I designed this to perhaps be adopted as a recognised mark.

I love things that are made by people with that 'real' heritage going back generations and not something made half way across the world that is not authentic.

I also thought perhaps it was time that the Indian people had their own identifying flag, something that could combine elements of their heritage, be simple, recognisable and theirs.

So, I put together some ideas. I thought that a simple symbol would be best and the Thunderbird was what I thought worked best, initially using the 3 US flag colours in the design and then I adapted the design to use the Medicine Wheel colours.

Here are my ideas.

The basic, solid, Thunderbird symbol flag

The stars added version, 50 stars

The Medicine Wheel colours version

So that was my idea and I hope it is liked.

In my view as a non-Indian, I think that something like this reinforces the heritage of a great people that need greater recognition for their culture and heritage.