Nowthen, Minnesota, has voted to fly the state's old flag again after residents rejected a redesigned banner opponents say never got a direct statewide vote.
The Nowthen City Council voted in September to restore the previous Minnesota state flag at city locations where it had traditionally flown, The US Sun reported.
The move reversed the council's own earlier choice the same year to keep flying the current official flag. Residents and council members had weighed three options: the new design, the predecessor, or no state flag at all. After public comments backing the historic banner, the council restored the former version.
Minnesota law does not require municipalities to display the official state flag. Local governments remain free to decide what flies on their own property.
State lawmakers created a 13-member State Emblems Redesign Commission in 2023. More than 2,000 designs were submitted. The commission selected a concept that was later altered into the flag now in official use.
On May 11, 2024, Minnesota retired the previous flag and introduced the replacement.
The new flag features a dark blue shape resembling the outline of Minnesota, a white eight-pointed North Star, and a light blue field meant to represent the state's waters. Supporters say the symbols reflect the North Star State, the motto “L’étoile du Nord,” and the sky, land, and waterways.
The previous flag was royal blue with the state seal at the center. That seal showed a white farmer working the land and a Native American man riding away on horseback.
Critics of the old design argued the seal image portrayed the displacement of Native Americans. Supporters defended it as part of Minnesota history.
Opponents of the redesign also said residents never received a direct statewide vote on the change. Some pointed to similarities between the new design and Somalia’s light-blue flag with a white star.
Nowthen is not alone. MPR News reported in May that at least 15 cities had voted to fly the old flag, with 13 of those decisions coming during 2026. At least 20 city councils had discussed the issue since the start of the year.
State Rep. Mike Freiberg, a Democrat, described the dispute to MPR News as “a manufactured culture war.”
"a manufactured culture war."
Freiberg also said a statistically valid poll would show most people think the government should focus on other matters.
"I think if you did a statistically valid poll of people around the state just asking what they thought, they’d say, ‘It’s fine. You know, government should probably be focused on other things.'"
Local councils keep voting anyway. Minnesota handed cities the choice, and Nowthen used it. After first sticking with the new official flag, the council listened to residents who wanted the historic banner back on city property and reversed course in September.
When voters and taxpayers still care about the symbols flying over their town halls, calling it manufactured does not make the votes disappear.
