DETROIT LAKES, MINN. - Minnesota adopted a new state flag this year in the hope that it would unite all Minnesotans.
Instead, like COVID masks and profane political signs, the state flag illustrates our political divides. We have become a state of two separate flags.
Across greater Minnesota, the old state flag, with its depiction of a Native American riding into the sunset while a white man farms in the foreground, still hangs in many city council chambers and community halls and waves above homes and businesses.
While the new flag, adopted on May 11, has made inroads into greater Minnesota, especially into courtrooms, where it was mandated, the old flag commands significant loyalty.
“It was a beautiful depiction of what Minnesota is. We have a Native American culture. We have farmers. It is the history of this area,” said Tami Olson of Fergus Falls, who said her husband hurried to buy the old flag once the new flag was announced.
America has been struggling with how to deal with the symbols of a past that harmed many people, and Minnesota has not been spared.
It’s fair to say that the old state flag reflected the reality of the 1800s. As logging and railroad barons plundered the state, and European settlers moved in, the state’s Indigenous people did lose power. They lost ancestral lands that they depended on for their livelihoods. After the U.S.-Dakota war of 1862, many Dakota people were driven from the state. Indigenous children were forced into boarding schools. Today, more than a quarter of Native Americans in Minnesota live in poverty.
Arguably now, more than at any time in our state’s history, Minnesotans see that and understand the massive loss and trauma endured by Indigenous people. Simply changing a flag doesn’t fix that, but those who felt their oppression reflected in the flag no longer chafe under that demeaning symbol.