Minnesota State Changes Flag

Photo: New Minnesota flag

Minnesota officially changed its flag this past weekend. The old flag, adopted in 1957, will no longer fly on any government building.

The Minnesota National Guard has removed the old flag and installed a new one in its place. The 1957 flag that flew over the local Capitol will be preserved in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, the Voice of America reports.

National Guardsmen remove the old flag from the State Capitol

The previous flag featured the state seal on a blue background. The old seal is a circular image of the state's scenery; In the foreground, a white settler, next to whom lies a gun, is plowing the land, and in the background is an Indian armed with a spear on horseback.

The new flag has become more minimalistic: it features only three colors, white, light blue and dark blue. On the left is the North Star — a reference to the state motto, L'Étoile du Nord, i.e. “Star of the North” — the only US state motto in French.

The state seal was also changed — Now it depicts a bird – a black-billed loon – one of the symbols of the state. Above it is written the phrase Mni Sota Makoce, referring to the name “Minnesota”: from the Dakota Indian phrase the phrase translates as “land where the waters reflect the sky.” This is a reference to the numerous bodies of water throughout the state and one of Minnesota's nicknames — "The State of Ten Thousand Lakes".

Old and new state seals

A special commission spent several months selecting a new flag. 2,128 options submitted by the public were reviewed before settling on the final design. A report from the Minnesota Legislature notes that members of the public submitted over 21,000 requests for the new design.

Prepared by: Sergey Daga