The Minnesota State Flag is about to be redesigned, and it’s about time – for two reasons: an offensive image and poor aesthetic design.
First reason: The circle seal on the flag’s blue background is offensive. It depicts an early White settler plowing a field, with his rifle propped up nearby. In the distance is a Native American riding on a horse, apparently ready to exit to the left, out of the scene. Further back is the sun, which might be rising but could be sinking. The scene is obviously offensive, celebrating how White European settlers in the 1800s laid claim to Minnesota land, pushing indigenous people aside.
Second reason: The images in the scene are quite crudely drawn, with garishly too-bright colors of reds, yellows, blues. And the design is visually too visually “busy,” too cluttered – with stylized abstract images of Pink Lady Slippers (Minnesota State Flower) images surrounding the round seal.
The flag’s motto is “L’Etoile du Nord,” (pronounced in French “Lay-TWAHL dew Nor,” meaning “The Star of the North.”)
There are two dates on the flag: 1858, the year Minnesota became a state, and 1819, the year Fort Snelling was established in the Minnesota territory.
The flag’s round-seal design was conceived in 1858 by pioneers/entrepreneurs Alexander Ramsey, Henry Sibley and by Seth Eastman, who drew the seal and whose wife Mary wrote a poem evoking the meaning of the images:
“Give way, give way, young warrior,
Thou and thy steed give way.
The sun’s parting ray.
The rock bluff and prairie land
The white man claims them now.”
The Minnesota State House has approved the formation of a 13-member State Emblems Redesign Commission tasked with designing a new state flag. That commission will be formed by Aug. 1 of this year. Let us hope they recruit the work of some superb graphic designers. The commission will recommend new designs for lawmakers to consider by Jan. 1, 2024.
Three members on that committee will represent the Native American Dakota and Ojibwe communities, among others.
Kevin Jensvold, the tribal chair for the Upper Sioux Community, had this to say to the legislature: “I don’t envy your discussion on this bill because a flag represents a people, what they stand for, their morals and values. We choose to stand behind a flag, we choose to stand up for a flag, we choose to put it in places of prominence to demonstrate who we are.”
The legislature also requires the redesign commission work out a way the public can provide input into what a new flag should look like. That process (perhaps one for submitting ideas and designs to the commission via email or internet) will be announced later.
We have an idea. How about placing the stylized image of a beautiful loon floating on a lake in a circular seal against a lake-blue background?
