What Makes a Good State Seal?
A Native American artist’s perspective
Last week, the Minnesota State Emblems Redesign Commission unveiled a website with more than 2,500 submissions for the new state flag and seal of my home state. Of these, 85% were flags.
Perhaps because seals are less present in daily life than flags, there has been little public discussion about what the Commission should look for in a seal design, and which submissions fit the bill.
But the seal is just as important as a flag. As the symbol of the government on official documents, the seal represents the state and its values. And unlike the flag, which must be simple enough to be visible from a distance, the seal can be more creative and detailed.
The Commission’s “design brief” has several pages on what they are looking for in seal submissions. On my read, these requirements can be boiled down to three things. A good seal will:
1. Be aesthetically pleasing;
2. Distinctively Minnesotan; and
3. Tell a story
For all its faults, the old seal does these things.
The old seal design is clean and professional, at least as far as 19th century watercolors go. The inclusion of the Mississippi River, St. Anthony Falls, and the Norway pines make it distinctively Minnesotan. And the old seal tells a straightforward story.
The problem of course, and the impetus for the redesign project, is that the story the seal tells is a bad one. The Native American on horseback — riding away with the setting sun — tells a story that celebrates Native displacement and promotes white racial superiority.
The new seal must tell a better story.
I did not submit a design, but I’ve reviewed each of the 398 seal submissions. To my eye, there are many that meet criteria #1 & #2 by being aesthetically pleasing and distinctively Minnesotan. But there are very few that meet all three criteria.
Submissions like S23, S125, and S132 look pretty, and they scream Minnesota. But they don’t tell a story.
Minnesota is a beautiful place with lakes, trees, birds, and famous icons. So are most states.
It would be a missed opportunity if the Commission, in its efforts to stop promoting the ugly story on the old seal, simply declined to tell a story at all. It would be a shame if a seal perceived as offensive to Native Americans was replaced with one that just erases us from the picture entirely.
There are a few proposed seals that seek to tell a new story. S221 tells a story of Minnesotan camaraderie despite geographic and cultural differences. In a less explicit way, S109 says something similar. The multi-colored Lakota star represents contributions of diverse communities that create something unified and beautiful when joined together.
Submission S212 stands out the most to me.
Like other submissions, S212 is a clean design that is immediately identifiable with Minnesota. It mimics the state’s geography showing prairies in the west, forests in the north, rivers joining in the middle, all under the North Star. The outer rim has meaningful symbolism too: 87 outer segments representing each county, and 32 circles for the 32nd state.
But what makes S212 stand out is the story it tells about what Minnesota is and what it aspires to be. A group of children playing hockey is a beautiful metaphor for Minnesota.
Hockey is a sport that evolved through the cultural interaction of games played by indigenous and immigrant communities. Where the old seal told a story that celebrated Native displacement, S212 tells a story about how both indigenous and immigrant communities have shaped the state and moved it closer to what it ought to be: a welcoming place for families of all cultures and creeds.
S212 also uses geography to tell a temporal story about Minnesota’s past, present, and future. Viewing left to right, a viewer sees a monument styled after the Minnesota memorial at Gettysburg National Cemetery, honoring the past. In the middle, a diverse group of children plays in the present. And on the right, winter yields to spring, indicating hope for the future. It’s a deliberate and thoughtful design.
There are many submissions for new seals, and the Commission has the unenviable task of selecting a single one. I hope whichever design they choose tells a good story.
Kathryn Moore is a Native American artist and educator.
