Flying new colors: Minnesota's redesigned state flag to make its debut at the State Capitol

After decades of flying, Minnesota's flag will be lowered from the State Capitol building on Saturday for the last time.

It will make way for the state's new flag to take its place at government buildings in St. Paul, a stripped down design featuring a blue abstract shape of Minnesota, the North Star and solid block of light blue to represent Minnesota's many lakes, rivers and streams.

The historic changeover to mark Statehood Day follows a whirlwind process late last year to rethink and redesign the symbols that have represented Minnesota for most of the state's history. Minnesota's original flag — the state seal at the center of a blue backdrop — was criticized for decades for imagery that was seen as problematic for its representation of Native American communities.

"This flag stood for too long to exclude ... the first Minnesotans and the idea of correcting that and making it inclusive doesn't just benefit 11 sovereign tribal nations. It benefits every single person in Minnesota," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said earlier this week, addressing a Capitol crowd gathered from the state's 11 tribal nations. "We can stand a little bit taller. We can lean into a history that's a little bit truer."

Late last year, a 13-member commission created by the Legislature was given a timeline of four months and a budget of $35,000 to redesign both the flag and the state's seal. The image on both shows a white settler plowing a field in the foreground while a Native American man on horseback rides westward toward the sunset. That imagery dates back to the late 1800s and was criticized as a celebration of the idea that settlers were destined to take over the land, similar to other states' emblems designed around the same time.

Commission members sifted through thousands of flag submissions from the public, narrowed it down to a single finalist and made tweaks of their own to come up with the new design. The new flag is a simplified version of a concept submitted by Andrew Prekker, a 24-year-old Luverne resident.

The new flag has its critics, including people who have rushed to Lee Herold's flag shop in Rochester in recent months to secure a version of the state's historic design.

"It's never sold so well," Herold said, noting the design has been outselling the U.S. flag on some weeks. "I think the fact that the switchover date is coming up so soon has inspired a lot of people to act."

The new seal design features prominent state symbols such as a red-eyed loon on a Minnesota lake surrounded by pine trees, the North Star and sprigs of wild rice. Above the image are the words: "Mni Sóta Makoc̣e," Dakota for the "land where the waters reflect the sky" and where Minnesota derives its name.

"You will see a state seal that is modern. That is inclusive. That no longer has imagery that some find deeply not just offensive, but painful," Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said to members of tribal nations this week. His office is the keeper of the state seal.

Simon said the new imagery is something "all Minnesotans, no matter who they are, can rally behind" and "includes its own rich symbols and traditions and history about who we are no matter where we were born, no matter where we live, no matter what our heritage and that matters."

Republicans who served as non-voting members of the state emblems commission have been critical of the process to create the seal and the flag and want to give voters the chance to approve the new flag in an up-or-down vote this fall.

"It's not about whether you like the flag or not, it's just about whether Minnesotans should have the right to choose what represents them," said Rep. Bjorn Olson, R-Fairmont.

The Department of Administration has counted 120 flags in nearly two dozen buildings around the Minnesota State Capitol complex that will be replaced with the new design. There are also 71 versions of the current seal in 10 buildings in the Capitol complex.

Lowering flags will be simpler than removing some versions of the state's seal around the Capitol, which are affixed to everything from podiums and floors to etched into door handles.

Herold spent decades advocating for the Legislature to adopt a flag design that the public will embrace and fly proudly outside of their homes. While his own design was not selected by the commission, he's seen an uptick in sales of the new flag in recent weeks as more people learn about the design.

"My goal was to have a flag that was popular, and that may happen yet," he said. "Time will tell."

Staff writer Rochelle Olson contributed to this report.