Minnesota State Motto: L'Étoile du Nord

Minnesota's state motto is L'Étoile du Nord, a French phrase meaning The Star of the North. Governor Henry Sibley placed it on the state seal in 1858, and the Legislature formally adopted it on March 5, 1861.

Minnesota is the only U.S. state with an official motto in French. The phrase gave Minnesota its enduring nickname, the North Star State.

L'étoile means the star. Du nord means of the north. Together: The Star of the North.

The phrase refers to Polaris, the North Star, which sits nearly fixed above the North Pole and has been used by navigators and travelers for centuries to find direction.

Henry Hastings Sibley came to Minnesota Territory in 1834 at age 23 to work for the American Fur Company. For the next two decades he managed fur trading operations across the region, working daily alongside French-Canadian voyageurs who paddled the canoe routes through the northern lakes and forests. Sibley learned French and knew the voyageur world from the inside.

When Minnesota became the 32nd state on May 11, 1858, Sibley became its first governor. For the new state seal, he chose a French motto deliberately — a direct acknowledgment of the French-Canadians who had built the region's economy long before American settlement. The territorial seal before it had carried a Latin motto, Quo sursum velo videre, which contained a misspelling. Sibley replaced it.

Sibley placed L'Étoile du Nord on the seal in 1858 without formal legislative action. The Minnesota Legislature passed Laws of Minnesota 1861, Chapter 43 on March 5, 1861, formally adopting it as the official state motto.

On May 11, 2024 — exactly 166 years after statehood — Minnesota adopted a redesigned state seal and flag. The text L'Étoile du Nord was removed from the visual design and replaced by a symbolic star. The statute designating it as the official state motto was not repealed. It remains Minnesota's legal state motto.