The State of Minnesota is set to redesign its state flag after some claimed the current flag was offensive to Native Americans.
The old flag, which shows a Native American on horseback, will be replaced by an eight-pointed white star.
State Emblems Redesign Commission chair Luis Fitch told the Star Tribune that the “next generation will be raised with a new flag. It’s going to happen. We’re not going to be able to make everybody happy. The whole idea since day one was to make sure we can [create] a flag that unites us instead of separates us.”
The design of the new Minnesota flag mirrors the Jubaland state of Somalia flag.
Yall are conquered https://t.co/lUzpdgVTc5
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) December 17, 2023
Commission members also changed the Minnesota state seal.
The original seal featured an image similar to the former state flag, where a white farmer was plowing as a Native American rode a horse.
The new seal pictures a red-eyed loon on a lake.
A phrase above the new image says, “Mni Sóta Makoc̣e,” Dakota for the “land where the waters reflect the sky.”
Commission member Kate Beane said of the change, “If we are going to include a language within the seal, really thinking about the first language of this land, paying respect to that.”
