Minnesota may get new state seal and flag
Minnesota may see a new state seal and flag in the near future.
F284 calls for a State Emblems Redesign Commission to develop, design and recommend a new state flag and state seal.
Are Minnesota’s state seal and flag easily recognizable? Are they too cluttered? Do they need to go away?
No, yes, and maybe.
Those answers are based on a bill calling for the commission to “develop, design, and recommend to the legislature and governor a new design for the official state seal and a new design for the official state flag … that accurately and respectfully reflect Minnesota’s shared history, resources, and diverse cultural communities.”
HF284, as amended, was approved on March 21 by the House State Government Finance and Elections Committee along party lines and sent to the House Ways and Means Committee.
“The state seal has imagery on it that is a problem, to put it charitably,” said Representative Mike Freiberg (DFL-Golden Valley), the bill sponsor.
He cited a July 3, 2020 commentary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in which a Minnesota-born Duke University professor is quoted as saying the state seal “shows a white farmer behind a plow, tilling the soil. He’s looking up to watch an Indian ride away on a horse. In the original, he’s literally riding into the sunset. The Indian looks back at the white man. As far as you can tell, he’s leaving willingly.”
The commentary writer, Mark Grindy, a senior director at West Wing Writers, then adds, “This is not an attempt to honor our heritage or history, but to erase it. The truth is, state-sponsored violence against people of color is not merely part of Minnesota history but central to it.”. . .