As the Vice-Chair of the State Emblems Redesign Commission — the group tasked by the Minnesota Legislature to redesign the state’s flag and seal — I find it necessary to respond to the false information our local legislators continue to spread about our new state flag.

Since our new state emblems — both the flag and the seal — have been in place for over two years now, it seems they continue to make these statements out of what can only be called willful ignorance.

Rep. Paul Torkelson claimed in a New Ulm Journal interview “not all sides were considered during the committee selection process.” The committee selection process was followed exactly as the authorizing legislation required: members representing diverse constituencies within the state were included as were members of the general public. In fact, that is how I became a commission member. I applied for one of the seats open to the general public, and my application was accepted. Any Minnesotan could have applied for one of those seats.

Torkelson also claimed that the flag would find more acceptance if there have been “genuine input from folks across the state.” The ignorance of this statement is so great, it is laughable. The commission accepted designs from the public and then provided multiple opportunities for Minnesotans to comment.

Over 2,000 flag designs were received and over 20,000 Minnesotans provided feedback on those designs in three separate rounds of public comment. These written comments were followed up with public testimony from design advisers as well as additional members of the general public. From the initial call for submissions to the final selection, every step was guided by a commitment to inclusivity and transparency.

As a historian, I must also point out that this redesign process is the only time Minnesotans had any input at all in the creation of our state emblems. At no point did the previous flag and seal represent the will of the people. In fact, the will of the people — as expressed through their elected representatives — was expressly ignored in their creation.

Here’s where a history lesson is in order. When Minnesota became a territory in 1849, a territorial seal was created. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the State Legislature approved a design for a new state seal. However, Gov. Henry Sibley simply ignored the Legislature’s recommended design and kept using the territorial seal. The Legislature then belatedly approved this territorial seal as the official state seal in 1861.

This is the history of the design that was our official state seal until 2024. At no point did any Minnesotan have any input in its creation. In fact, the vote of the State Legislature was ignored. The voice of the people and their elected representatives was cast aside in the creation of the previous state seal.

A consideration of the history of the previous state flag is also helpful. Minnesota had no state flag for the first 35 years of its existence. With the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago approaching in 1893, the Women’s Auxiliary Board of exhibition planners decided Minnesota needed to have a state flag to display at this exhibition. A flag committee was formed, which then issued a call for a design.

After reviewing more than 200 entries, the flag committee selected the design created by a Minneapolis artist. The design was white on one side, blue on the other, with the state seal on the white side. The State Legislature endorsed the winning design as the state’s official flag in 1893. This design was modified in 1957, when the legislature voted to eliminate the white side and make it a single-sided blue flag.

The seal was then slightly modified by the state legislature in 1983.

To summarize: the previous flag was created in a process where a six-person committee selected a design with no public input. And the chosen design included the state seal that was essentially forced upon Minnesota by a governor who ignored the vote of the legislature. In contrast, Minnesota’s new flag and seal are the result of an inclusive, democratic process that guided the design selection at every step.

Rep. Chris Swedzinski claimed in his legislative update that “most people weren’t asking for a new flag.” In fact, the movement to change the flag has a long history. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights first called for the seal’s replacement in 1968. There were calls for a new state flag already in the 1980s. The effort to redesign the state flag intensified in the past two decades, as the state legislature considered ten separate bills to redesign the state flag between 2000 and 2023. These bills were introduced by Republican and DFL legislators. Redesigning the state flag has historically been a bi-partisan effort.

Our new state emblems are the result of decades of work and activism supported by Minnesotans and legislators on both sides of the political aisle. Opponents of the new flag are willfully ignoring this history and choosing instead to make this a political wedge issue. I am sorry to see our local legislators choosing to divide Minnesotans instead of celebrating our new emblems as the culmination of decades of bi-partisan work and grassroots support.

— Anita Gaul is chair of the Lyon County DFL, a history instructor at Minnesota West Community and Technical College and served as Vice-Chair of the State Emblems Redesign Commission