Minnesota edges close to picking new state flag to replace design offensive to Native Americans
MINNEAPOLIS– A state committee on Friday selected a basic design concept for a new state flag for Minnesota to replace a current flag that is considered offensive to Native Americans but needs more time to be finalized.
The final choice came down to two templates. The panel was accompanied by a panel showing the stylized dark blue shape of Minnesota with an eight-pointed white North Star on it on the left, and then horizontal stripes or a solid field on the right.
The committee then decided to consider variations on that theme when it meets again Tuesday, including an asymmetrical Minnesota that more closely resembles the actual shape of the state, and adding either a solid light blue field on the right or a green stripe along the bottom joints to symbolize the state. the state's agricultural heritage.
“Let's marinate these for a few days. I think it's important,” said commission chairman Luis Fitch. “And then let's listen to what the public and the people of the state of Minnesota have to say.”
The runner-up featured a pair of curved “swooshes” – one white and one light blue – symbolizing the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, against a dark blue background with a North Star in the upper left corner. To some people, the swoops also resembled loons, the official state bird. But the judges chose the design with straight, simple lines.
None of the designs that made it to the final round generated much enthusiasm among the public beforehand. Fitch acknowledged this as he urged his colleagues to think about what design might be accepted by future generations.
“We're not going to be able to make everyone happy,” Fitch said. “The whole idea since day one for me has been to make sure we can create a flag that unites us, not divides us.”
The current flag of Minnesota features the state seal against a blue background. The seal depicts an Indian riding into the sunset while a white settler plows his field with his rifle leaning on a nearby tree stump. The images suggest to many that the indigenous people were defeated and left, while the whites won and stayed.
Not only do the state's Dakota and Ojibwe tribes find that offensive, but experts in the scientific study of flags — known as vexillology — say it's too complicated a design.
Guidelines from the North American Vexillological Association say flags should be simple but meaningful, with only a few colors, easily recognizable from a distance, and without seals or lettering. Ideally, a child should be able to draw it. The group ranks Minnesota 67th out of 72 U.S. and Canadian state and provincial flags. The Minnesota design dates from 1957, an evolution from the 1893 original.
The committee – which also includes members of the state's tribal and other communities of color – was tasked with producing new designs for the flag and seal by January 1. Unless the Legislature rejects them, the new emblems will automatically become official on April 1, 2024, which Minnesota celebrates as Statehood Day.
The committee decided earlier this week on a new stamp featuring a diver and the Dakota name for Minnesota: Mni Sóta Makoce, which translates as “where the water meets the sky.”
Minnesota joins several other states in redesigning outdated flags. The Utah Legislature last winter approved a simplified flag design that still features a beehive, a symbol of the prosperity and zeal of the Mormon pioneers who settled the state. Mississippi voters in 2020 chose a new state flag with a magnolia and the phrase “In God We Trust” to replace a Confederate-themed flag that had been used by Ku Klux Klan groups and widely condemned as racist.
Other states considering simplifying their flags include Maine, where voters will decide next year whether to replace their current banner with a retro version featuring a simple pine tree and a blue North Star, as well as Michigan and Illinois.