Minnesota changes state flag after claims of ‘racism’

The State Emblems Redesign Commission chose a new flag and state seal – the latter depicting a loon, the state bird – on December 19 from more than 2000 submissions.

The winning design features an eight-pointed North Star against a dark blue background, resembling Minnesota’s shape, and a solid light-blue field, which the Commission said represents the state’s waters.

The design was a modification of submission F1935, by Andrew Prekker of Luverne. It was one of three finalists selected by the Commission.

Mr Prekker’s original design featured the same star on the navy blue background – representing the state’s motto “L’Étoile du Nord” (Star of the North) as well as being “symbol of unity above a land of diversity” – and had three colour stripes to the right: white, green, and light blue.

The three colours, respectively, represented snow, nature and agriculture, as well as the “significance of water to our state, each as the land of 10,000 lakes, the birth state of the Mississippi River, and the origins of Minnesota’s name.”

Minnesota’s name is derived from a Sioux word meaning “sky-tinted water”, according to the website for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Commission Chairman Luis Fitch explained why he supported the final design in a passionate speech, saying the light blue represents the Mississippi River pointing to the North Star. But, he said the symbols could represent many things to other people.

Mr Prekker said he was grateful to have won the “rare privilege” of being able to contribute to state history.

“It’s an achievement that I hope brings a lot of unity and pride to our land, and I will hold that fact with great honour for the rest of my life,” he said in a statement to the Commission.

“It is my greatest hope that this new flag can finally represent our state and all of its people properly — that every Minnesotan of every background, including the Indigenous communities and tribal nations who’ve been historically excluded, can look up at our flag with pride and honour and see themselves within it.”

Unless the state Legislature rejects the flag and seal, they will automatically become official from April 1, 2024, when Minnesota observes Statehood Day.

Minnesota’s current flag, from 1957, was already an update from the 1893 original. It includes the current state seal, tweaked from the 1858 original, depicting a Native American riding a horse while a white settler ploughs his field with a rifle leaning on a nearby stump.

The state’s 11 recognised Dakota and Ojibwe tribes consider the previous design offensive, AP reports. Critics also said the seal suggests Indigenous people were running from defeat, while the white people were settling into the land.

Meanwhile, flag experts – known as vexillologists – say the design is overly complicated and that an ideal flag design is one that can be drawn by a child.

The Commission also settled on a new seal featuring a loon and the Dakota name for Minnesota: “Mni Sóta Makoce”, which can be translated as “where the water meets the sky”.

The design – submission S224 – features a loon in a “pose that signifies pride and energy”, waves, wild rice (the state grain) to represent modern and tribal agriculture, and pine trees for forest and land.

“This symbol represents the abundance of natural resources that are the foundation of the economy and vitality of Minnesota,” the seal’s design explanation states.

The rim of the seal also now includes 98 bars to represent the state’s 87 counties and 11 tribes.

Despite high hopes of being a unifying symbol for Minnesota, the new icons have stirred controversy and disputes from some of the panel who believe it violates the design rules.

Republican members of the state’s House of Representatives Bjorn Olson and Senate Steve Drazkowski are reportedly planning to submit a report to stop the symbols’ approval.

Mr Olson said the process was rushed and suggested the legislature put the designs to a vote next November, during the Presidential election.

Mr Olson said the seal violates the statute that created the Commission, which is to come up with designs that reflect Minnesota’s “shared history” without including symbols that “represent only a single community or person”, real or stylised.

Mr Drazkowski said having the Dakota name on the seal is “raising one race above all the races of Minnesota”, AP reports.

But some have also criticised Mr Prekker’s design for resembling the flag of Puntland, a Somali state.

Minnesota is home to a large Somali diaspora, and is represented in Congress by Somali-born Ilhan Omar, who posted a tongue-in-cheek response to the new design.

“It’s official! I’m loving the new Minnesota state flag,” Ms Omar wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“And I hate to break it to the right wing crazies, but I had nothing to do with the new design.”

Officials say any similarity is a coincidence, and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon noted to the commission that a number of state flags resemble other countries’.

Several other US states have been redesigning their flags. Mississippi chose a new design in 2020 to replace one that featured the Confederate emblem, widely condemned as racist. Utah also approved a simplified design including a beehive, a nod to its Mormon pioneers.

Michigan, Illinois, and Maine are also considering changing their flag, with the latter to put a change to a public vote next year.