5 Rejected or Lost Symbols of America

When the Founding Fathers set out to build a republic from scratch, they reached for symbols: the classical world, the Bible, and — most tellingly — the flora and fauna of the land they were claiming. What those framers rarely acknowledged was that the animals, trees, and imagery they adopted had long carried meaning for the Indigenous nations who had inhabited the continent for millennia. From the timber rattlesnake on the Gadsden Flag to the white-tailed deer bucktails worn by Pennsylvania soldiers, the Revolution’s rejected and forgotten emblems sit at a complicated crossroads of cultural exchange, appropriation, and adaptation. This is the story of five symbols that never quite made it — and the Native world that made them possible.

A World Wired for Symbolism

“This was a world rife with symbols and symbolism,” says Tyler Putman, senior manager of gallery interpretation at The Museum of the American Revolution. Colonists were accustomed to buying goods stamped with the British lion or “GR” (Georgius Rex) to signal loyalty to the king. Farmers even painted hex signs above barn doors to ward off spirits.

Revolutionary sailors went further, tattooing numbers like ’76 or stars onto their bodies in response to Congress’s call for “a new constellation.” But symbols, like tattoos, fade — and many of the young republic’s earliest attempts at self-definition were quietly abandoned. Explore more on the long arc of Native American symbols, pictographs, and petroglyphs to see how deeply symbolic language is rooted in this continent’s history.

1. The Chain of States

The Chain of States was an interlocking circle of rings, each link inscribed with the name of a colony. It appeared on commemorative plates and printed colonial currency during the war, but vanished almost immediately afterward.

“As the union added states, it grew cumbersome to continue to add chains,” Putman explains. But there was a deeper rejection: “Newspaper editorials called out the hypocrisy of a slaveholding republic proclaiming itself as dedicated to freedom while using a chain as their national symbol.”

The image drew on older European and Indigenous diplomatic conventions. Across the Americas, the link-and-chain motif and the covenant-chain of wampum belts had long been used by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy to bind nations in alliance. The fledgling United States adopted the visual grammar of Indigenous diplomacy — but avoided its obligations.

2. The Pine Tree and Liberty Poles

New England’s towering white pines were prized exports to England, where they became masts for the Royal Navy. “In a world of limited verticality — the biggest building was a few stories tall — these trees were an impressive symbol of American power,” Putman notes. The famous “Appeal to Heaven” flag of Massachusetts carried a tall pine at its center.

But trees had deeper patriotic roots. Because colonial cities lacked buildings large enough for mass assemblies, colonists gathered beneath “liberty trees.” Where no tree stood, they raised a liberty pole — often a ship’s mast. British forces repeatedly cut them down; defiant colonists just as quickly replaced them. “It was a form of civil protest,” Putman says.

The Indigenous Sacred Landscape

The colonists’ reverence for trees was not invented in a vacuum. Many Native nations regarded specific trees, groves, and standing poles as sacred — as sites of council, ceremony, and ancestral memory. Recognizing this, the modern preservation of Native American sacred sites carries forward a tradition of place-based meaning that predates the Revolution by centuries.

3. Deer, Rattlesnakes, and Animal Emblems

“Colonists lived in a world of animal symbols,” says Putman. “England had the lion, Scotland the unicorn, but Native Americans had them thinking about animals in new ways.”

Before the war, the Pennsylvania Associators adorned their hats with bucks’ tails — a distinctly American animal — to signal that they were “true-born sons of the woods of America.” They wore them while fighting alongside actual Indigenous allies. “There were elements of genuine cultural exchange as well as appropriation and adaptation,” Putman observes.

Benjamin Franklin’s famous 1754 Join, or Die cartoon depicted the colonies as a timber rattlesnake, an animal unique to the Americas. That serpent was later revived on the Gadsden Flag alongside the words “Don’t tread on me.” Choosing a creature tied in European Christian tradition to the devil was a bold statement — and serpent imagery faded as the bald eagle rose to dominate the Great Seal.

Notably, the rattlesnake had long been a figure of spiritual and medicinal importance to many Indigenous nations. Learn more about the healing traditions that surrounded such creatures in historical methods of Native American traditional healing.

4. The Great Seal: Hercules, Moses, and the Eagle

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams were tasked with designing the Great Seal. “Seals were a literal symbol of power,” Putman says. “Kings had used them for millennia to symbolize the state’s authority over legal documents.”

Jefferson proposed the children of Israel led through the wilderness by a cloud and fire. Franklin favored Moses dividing the Red Sea. Adams, shaped by Enlightenment fascination with the classical world, wanted Hercules. “The colonies were redefining themselves as a republic and were drawn to the Roman Republic with its ideals of virtue, commonwealth and a civic community,” says Michael Blaakman of Princeton.

The result was a confusing mess; the second committee’s design was also rejected. In 1782, a third committee added the pyramid and eye, along with a small eagle. Only when Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson championed the bald eagle did the bird become the central emblem of the nation.

The Eagle in Two Worlds

The bald eagle was not an invention of European colonists. For many Native nations, eagles were already sacred messengers — their feathers used in ceremony, regalia, and peace diplomacy. Discover how the bird’s dual identity developed in this account of how the bald eagle became America’s national bird.

5. The Grand Union Flag

The first official flag of the colonies was the Continental Colors, or Grand Union Flag — thirteen red and white stripes for the colonies, with the Union Jack in the upper-left corner. “Until July 1776, the founders did not see the conflict as a war for independence, but rather to protect their rights as part of the British Empire,” says Matthew Keagle, curator at Fort Ticonderoga. “That Anglo identity was baked into early America.”

The Stars and Stripes would not be officially adopted until the Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777, which called for “13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation.”

During the Revolution, King George III was targeted by proxy. Rebels shot at tavern signs bearing his face; Manhattanites melted down his equestrian statue to cast musket balls. Like that lead, American identity kept being recast as the country matured.

Historical Context & Key Cultural Takeaways

• Symbolic Hybridity: The Revolution’s rejected emblems drew directly from both European classical imagery and Indigenous American material culture — a fusion born of proximity, alliance, and conflict.
• Appropriation vs. Exchange: Scholars like Putman emphasize that the borrowing was bidirectional, involving genuine exchange alongside strategic appropriation.
• Contested Emblems: The Chain of States was abandoned partly because its imagery clashed with the reality of slavery — a reminder that symbols are only as honest as the society behind them.
• Living Traditions: Trees, snakes, deer, and eagles remain spiritually significant in many Native nations today, long after the Revolution’s flags faded.
• Continuity of Meaning: The imagery of the early republic did not replace Indigenous symbolism — it overlapped with it, often without acknowledgment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why was the Chain of States symbol rejected?

Beyond the practical issue of adding new links as states joined, newspaper editorials condemned the hypocrisy of a slaveholding republic adopting a chain — a symbol of bondage — as its emblem of unity.

Was the bald eagle a symbol borrowed from Native cultures?

Eagles were already sacred in many Indigenous traditions across North America, used in ceremony and diplomacy. The Founding Fathers drew on the bird’s existing American presence when they elevated it to the Great Seal, though the national symbolism they assigned it was their own.

What was the Grand Union Flag?

The Grand Union Flag, also called the Continental Colors, was the first official flag of the colonies, featuring thirteen red and white stripes with the Union Jack in the canton. It reflected the founders’ initial identity as British subjects seeking redress, not independence.

Did colonists really wear deer tails on their hats?

Yes. The Pennsylvania Associators adorned their caps with bucks’ tails as a statement of distinctly American identity — worn even while fighting alongside Native allies.

What role did the timber rattlesnake play in Revolutionary symbolism?

Franklin’s 1754 Join, or Die cartoon used the rattlesnake to represent colonial unity, and the Gadsden Flag later paired the snake with “Don’t tread on me.” Serpent imagery faded once the bald eagle was adopted on the Great Seal.

Cultural Legacy & Modern Preservation

The Revolution’s lost symbols remind us that nation-building is an act of storytelling — and that the stories told by the young United States were woven from threads that predated it. Trees, snakes, eagles, and chains all carried meanings older than the republic itself. Museums like The Museum of the American Revolution today interpret these artifacts with growing attention to Indigenous context. The work of preserving that fuller history — through exhibits, tribal consultation, and repatriation under NAGPRA — continues the unfinished business of telling America’s story honestly.