Minnesota Flag (Dakota: buying, bus, eat)

[OurNextAdventure]

What is with the Indian in the Minnesota flag? Does anybody know the history on that? My dad and my wife are from Minnesota, and neither of them know the history on the flag, or the state for that matter.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by azbatman86

What is with the Indian in the Minnesota flag? Does anybody know the history on that? My dad and my wife are from Minnesota, and neither of them know the history on the flag, or the state for that matter.

This may give you a start:

Google for Minnesota state flag history

[roneb]

Given that the Cheyenne, Dakota Sioux, Ojibway/Chippewa, and other tribes have a strong history in the region, should the presence of a Native American on the flag be that great of a surprise?

[OurNextAdventure]

No, it shouldn't. I don't know which tribes have roots there. I am from Arizona, I have studied southwest culture. I just noticed the flag today while eating dinner, and asked her what it all meant.

[ozzie679]

Our state flag is so blah that I forgot what it looked like.

[jasper1372]

Yes the Minnesota State flag is boring all right. Spending time in Arizona I saw their state flag flying all around the area as well as replications of the flag on various things from bus stop shelters, bumper stickers etc. The Arizona flag, as well as about half the US states is very colorful and interesting....as opposed to Minnesota's flag and the other half of the US states that really put a lot of thought into their flag....a solid colored background with the state seal in the middle....oh wow, that took a lot of thought didn't it ?....NOT. It's no wonder many Minnesotians don't see much of the state flag flying....why bother, it certainly isn't colorful or interesting enough to bother buying and flying.

[Babe_Ruth]

Bumping this old thread.. because a redesigned state flag was in the national news today..

Any thoughts on the potentially new Minnesota state flag.. thoughts on the effort to replace the current flag, etc ??

[Tyryztoll]

Originally Posted by Babe_Ruth

Bumping this old thread.. because a redesigned state flag was in the national news today..

Any thoughts on the potentially new Minnesota state flag.. thoughts on the effort to replace the current flag, etc ??

Total embarrassment and waste of resources, as expected. The flag looks like my 6 year old niece designed it.

[Andrew in Minnesota]

Originally Posted by Babe_Ruth

Bumping this old thread.. because a redesigned state flag was in the national news today..

Any thoughts on the potentially new Minnesota state flag.. thoughts on the effort to replace the current flag, etc ??

I've long thought the flag was too cluttered/busy/complicated. The best state flags are the simple ones: Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Alabama. And now, Minnesota.

[Veritas Vincit]

The old state flag was a fairly mediocre 'state seal on blue background' design. States which feature this type of flag tend to see pretty little identification with or display of the flag. But of course that's not the reason they're changing it. They're changing it because of the state seal itself being 'offensive' as it reminds people of the frontier/pioneer history of Minnesota which naturally involved settling lands that other people had a longer standing claim to.


Now the new design's problem is its universal blandness. Of all possible star designs they chose the one that's least evocative. The design initially submitted had a cooler star on it that however looked quite a bit like the NATO logo (and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if that's the reason it got nixed). Then there's the colors. Aqua should not be in any design meant to be permanent because it's a fashion color which goes in and out of style frequently. It's also as colors go pretty beige. It's the blue beige so to speak. It doesn't push any buttons or stir emotions, it's the opposite of a statement color.


In addition, they have the aqua run into the navy without any element that jazzes it up. If you have non-contrasting colors, I don't think they should just run into each other. And let's not even get into the inverted triangle cutout look. It's 'unique' as in you don't see it much in flags. And there's a reason for that. Our mind picks up stuff left to right, so the inversion creates a sense of passiveness.


So to summarize the new flag design presents an image of passive, boring state that's mostly just afraid of offending anyone. Perhaps it is a good flag for Minnesota.