Great Seal of Minnesota

Minnesota used a historic frontier-style seal for more than a century. The state began using a seal in 1858, the legislature approved Henry Sibley's revised design in 1861, and lawmakers clarified that design again in 1983 after decades of variation in artistic rendering.

In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature created the State Emblems Redesign Commission to adopt a new official seal and flag. The commission reviewed hundreds of seal submissions and selected a concept derived from a design by Ross Bruggink, then revised it further before certifying the final artwork.

The new Great Seal of the State of Minnesota became official on May 11, 2024. It retired the older seal that showed a settler plowing beside a Native rider and replaced it with symbols tied to Minnesota's landscape, language history, and widely shared state emblems.

The 2024 seal is built around recognition rather than narration. Instead of a historical scene with human figures, it uses a loon, wild rice, trees, water, and the North Star to identify Minnesota through nature, geography, and long-standing state symbols.

The Dakota phrase Mni Sota Makoce appears across the upper interior of the seal. The phrase refers to the origin of the name Minnesota and is commonly translated as 'Land where the waters reflect the skies' or 'Land of sky-tinted water.' Its inclusion connects the seal to the state's Indigenous linguistic history.

Minnesota's current seal uses a small set of symbols named directly by the Secretary of State in the official description of the design.

Minnesota's seal changed more dramatically in 2024 than most state seals ever do. For more than 160 years, official versions kept the same basic frontier scene even while lettering, orientation, and rendering details changed.

The three versions below show that progression: the 19th-century official design, the 1983 statutory redraw, and the current seal adopted on May 11, 2024.