Live: How to watch the Minnesota state flag meeting on Tuesday
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The commission tasked with selecting the new Minnesota state flag will meet again on Tuesday to finalize the designs for the flag and seal.
The State Emblems Redesign Commission, which was tasked with adopting a new state flag and state seal by Jan. 1, will meet at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. You can watch the meeting live, streaming in the player above.
Last week, the commission settled on a base design for the flag, choosing the submission with the white, green and blue stripes and an eight-point star on the left. The commission will be making some changes to the flag to try to make it more "Minnesota" looking.
The base design has been selected for the new Minnesota flag.
The commission has already made its final selection for the new state seal, choosing the design featuring a loon. The commission did agree on some changes, including removing the state motto and year of statehood that were in the original design, and adding a Dakota phrase, which inspired the name Minnesota.
Here's the seal, which could see more design changes before the commission finalizes it:
The new Minnesota seal design, as of Dec. 15, 2023. The design could undergo additional changes before the State Emblems Redesign Commission finalizes the new state seal. (Supplied)
Minnesota’s current flag includes the state seal against a blue background. The seal depicts a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plows his field with his rifle leaning on a nearby stump. The imagery suggests to many that the Indigenous people were defeated and going away, while whites won and were staying.
Not only do the state’s Dakota and Ojibwe tribes consider that offensive, but experts in the scientific and scholarly study of flags — known as vexillology — say it’s an overly complicated design.
Unless the Minnesota Legislature rejects the commission's designs, the new emblems will automatically become official on April 1, 2024, which Minnesota observes as Statehood Day.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.