After months of debate and thousands of public submissions and comments, Minnesota has a new state flag.
The commission tasked with redesigning the state’s emblems adopted changes to their final design concept on Tuesday, settling on stripped-down version of the flag that includes a deep blue K shape that resembles the state’s borders, an eight-point North Star on it hoist and solid lighter blue color to represent water.
“We needed to focus on one thing to make us different,” said the State Emblems Redesign Commission Chair Luis Fitch, who made an impassioned speech in support of the final design, noting that he saw Minnesota’s headwaters of the Mississippi River in the solid blue color.
With their final choice, the commission is expected to meet a Jan. 1 deadline set forth by the Legislature to redesign both the flag and the state’s official seal of government. Members had four months and a budget of $35,000 to substantially redesign the symbols representing the state for the first time in more than 100 years.
Not everyone was pleased with the final selection or the process that the commission took to get there. Two Republican legislators who served as nonvoting members of the commission plan to introduce legislation to put the final design to a vote of the public, though there are questions about whether that’s constitutional.
The flag will star flying on May 11 — Statehood Day — unless the Legislature decides to take action to undo their work. The DFL-led House and Senate passed the legislation to create the commission this spring.
The North Star chosen for the flag mirrors one in the State Capitol rotunda and is similar to a star included in another flag finalists’ design.
The commission debated whether or not to make the K shape asymmetrical like the state’s actual borders, but they opted for a symmetrical design.
The final design selected Tuesday is the culmination of months of research and public meetings. The public, eager to engage in the process, submitted more than 2,000 alternative flag concepts and 20,000 comments on a handful of flag and state seal finalists last month.
“Change is hard initially, but then you get used to it,” said the commission’s vice chair Anita Gaul. “By the time my kids are adults, they will embrace this flag, they will hardly remember the one we had before it.”
The new seal design features 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.”
Unless the Legislature takes action to undo their work, the new flag will start flying on May 11, which is Statehood Day.