When St. Francis voted to return to the former Minnesota state flag in January, city leaders framed the decision as a message to state officials. Months later, that message has echoed across the state, with more than a dozen cities choosing to fly the former design or keep it displayed in city buildings.
Supporters of the former flag have offered a wide range of issues with the current flag, including an aesthetic or historical affinity to the former flag. Others said the issue is more about the process used to replace it, arguing that voters should have had a direct say before Minnesota retired a flag that had flown in some form for generations.
Critics say the former flag and seal carried imagery long criticized as offensive to Native Americans. The former flag included the previous state seal, which depicted a Native American on horseback and a white settler plowing a field. The Minnesota Historical Society traces the territorial seal artwork to 1849, and the former state flag incorporated the Great Seal of Minnesota beginning with the state’s first flag in 1893.
The current flag was adopted May 11, 2024. The flag includes a dark blue shape representing Minnesota, a white eight-pointed star based on the star in the Capitol Rotunda and a bright blue field representing water. The State Emblems Redesign Commission received 2,128 flag design submissions before selecting a concept created by Andrew Prekker and modifying it.
In January, the St. Francis City Council voted 5-0 to approve a resolution stating the city would not fly or display the current Minnesota state flag until there was a statutory change or a statewide vote.
That set off a cascading effect as other cities took up the debate as their residents spoke out, either for or against the measure.
Other cities followed St. Francis’s lead by choosing to fly the former state flag over the current state flag, including Ham Lake, Inver Grove Heights, Spring Lake Park, Hill City, Baldwin, Janesville, and Wahkon, according to AMM-ECM reporting. The Elk River City Council moved toward flying the former flag after a resident survey came back in favor of the change — of the 1,100 survey respondents, 74.6% supported displaying the former flag, while 24.4% preferred the current flag. Champlin voted to continue flying the former state flag in a 3-2 vote in February.
But in other cities, the current Minnesota state flag continues to fly.
Columbus brought the issue up for a debate in March during a workshop meeting after two council members each received two emails from a total of three people about the flag. The council members debated the issue, floating the idea of flying both flags, but struggling with which flag might be on top, knowing that itself wouldn’t satisfy the debate. The council ultimately decided to allow city staff which flag to fly, and Mayor Ron Hanegraaf said he’d wait to see what the city’s response would be. The current state flag hangs in front of the city office.
In Wyoming, the council looked for a middle ground that would appeal to all residents, and a 5-0 vote at its Tuesday, May 5 meeting confirmed the city would remove all state flags and replace them with city flags.
“After reading everything, there are people who want to keep the new flag, there are people who want to go back to the old flag,” Iverson said. So she proposed a compromise of not flying any state flag, but instead flying a city flag.
“I would like to see us fly the Wyoming flag, the city of Wyoming flag, and fly that proudly,” Iverson said.
That was met with support by council members Brett Ohnstad and Linda Nanko-Yeager as a great middle ground.
“I think showing pride in our city is a good compromise,” Ohnstad said.
But that was not met with support initially by council member Dennis Schilling, who expressed concerns about doing any move that could jeopardize state funding, particularly as the city looks to the state legislature for funding a long-sought after public safety facility.
“Things are progressing, and I don’t want to jeopardize that. I have strong concerns about making waves in the pond,” Schilling said. “…This is a scary subject for me because of what we are trying to accomplish in this community.”
He also said he received only one email asking the city to change the flag back to the former flag, an 15 emails in the week in favor of keeping the new state flag.
“In my perspective, this is overwhelmingly, ‘Stop wasting our time, and leave the flag the way it is,’” he said.
Still, Schilling said he’d support the change, as he was adamantly against the reverting to the former state flag, but was open to just flying the city flag.
Despite public speakers at meetings, Forest Lake still hasn’t taken up the debate.
Broader debate
On April 27, a bill was introduced in the Minnesota House that would reduce aid to cities and counties that use the former state flag. The bill would direct the commissioner of revenue to reduce aid by 10% if a city or county flies or otherwise uses a state flag other than the design certified in the State Emblems Redesign Commission report. The bill would take effect with aids payable in 2027.
The bill was introduced as HF 5077 by Rep. Mike Freiberg and other DFL House members. House Speaker Lisa Demuth wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that the bill was “dead on arrival.”
“There is no way this bill is moving through,” Demuth wrote. “To know that Democrats are trying to take funding away from our police and fire, from our cities, it’s ridiculous. We have real work that could help Minnesotans.”
State Sen. Mary Kunesh (Dist. 39, DFL) said she carried companion legislation in the Senate.
“(Rep. Mike) Freiberg and I were a part of this,” Kunesh said. “It’s important that municipalities respect the decision that was made. I stand by it.”
The former Minnesota state flag was based on versions that dated to 1893. It was redesigned in 1957 and later modified in 1983.
The former seal was based on a design by Army Capt. Seth Eastman from an earlier sketch by Col. James W. Abert at the request of Gov. Alexander Ramsey and delegate Henry Sibley. The seal depicted a Native American riding westward as a white settler plowed a field with a rifle leaning against a stump.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized Dakota and Ojibwe tribes have described the imagery as offensive, while flag design experts have criticized the design as overly complex.
The state Legislature adopted the current flag following recommendations from the State Emblems Redesign Commission, citing concerns about symbolism and design clarity.
AMM editors Jim Boyle, Kat Robb, Chloe Smith, Bob Statz, and Stacy Dahl all contributed to this report.