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Minnesota Unfurls Revamped State Flag

New banner replaces the controversial old design with features including the North Star.

By Hannah Edelheit  |  July 9, 2024

Minnesota state flagAfter 10 tries and 23 years, Minnesota has finally unveiled a new state flag.

The flag, chosen from more than 2,000 designs suggested by the public, flew above the Capitol for the first time on May 11, Minnesota’s Statehood Day.

It features a dark blue outline of Minnesota, a light blue background to pay tribute to the 10,000 lakes and a white eight-pointed star to represent the state nickname: the North Star State.

It eliminates the old state seal that had been its focal point, featuring the controversial image of a white man plowing a field and a Native American man riding away, Rep. Mike Freiberg (DFL) says.

“It was designed very deliberately to depict white farmers and settlers kind of displacing the Indigenous people,” Freiberg says, adding that the old flag looked too much like that of other states. “I just didn’t think it was an appropriate design to keep on either the flag or the seal.”

Flag expert Ted Kaye, secretary of the North American Vexillological Association, consulted on the Minnesota redesign. “Updating the flag is an opportunity,” he says.

5 Principles of Good Flag Design

According to the North American Vexillological Association, an effective flag should:

  • Have no more than three colors.
  • Be simple enough for a child to draw from memory.
  • Include meaningful elements that show what the flag symbolizes.
  • Avoid duplicating other flags.
  • Have no seals or lettering.

Freiberg was the chief author of the House bill to redesign the flag, and Sen. Mary Kunesh (DFL) was the chief author of the Senate version. Both were nonvoting members of the Minnesota State Emblems Redesign Commission.

The commission’s 13 voting members and four nonvoting members were appointed by different groups from around Minnesota, including the Council on Latino Affairs and Gov. Tim Walz. The Minnesota Historical Society, which also got appointments, put together a website where people could submit designs and find information, Freiberg says.

The commission had $45,000 and less than four months to review the designs. The only requirement was to create a design that “accurately and respectfully reflect[ed] Minnesota’s shared history, resources, and diverse cultural communities,” according to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Rep. Bjorn Olson (R), a nonvoting member, praises the work of the Historical Society but thinks the flag should have been put to a vote of the Legislature or Minnesota residents.

“That’s the biggest problem,” Olson says. “It’s hard to swallow something that someone is shoving down your throat.”

Putting the flag to a legislative vote “is very unusual,” Kaye says.

Minnesota is not the only state redesigning its flag: Utah, Georgia and Mississippi have also changed theirs recently. Offensive imagery and lack of recognizability top the list of reasons for a change, Kaye says, adding, “The process is 10% design and 90% politics and public relations. It’s a heavy lift to change the flag.”

The Massachusetts Legislature is discussing updating its flag, which has a design similar to Minnesota’s old one, with a seal on a blue background. Illinois also set up a commission to examine its state flag, Kaye says.

Freiberg says it’s a can’t-please-everyone situation.

“As the commission process went on, I sort of became more and more convinced that whatever we came up with, there was going to be at least 30% of the people who just hated it,” he says.

“If you walk around in my neck of the woods,” Olson says, “I have yet to see a new Minnesota flag flying.”

But Kaye, who has worked on almost every flag redesign in the last 25 years, considers Minnesota’s redesign top-notch. He has a cabinet with what could be described as a Flag Hall of Fame and hopes to add Minnesota’s new design to it.

“I give it a grade of an A,” he says.

Hannah Edelheit is an intern in NCSL’s Communications Division.

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