The central image of the Great Seal of Minnesota on the battle flag of the Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, as it would have appeared in about 1865, before damage to the center image.

Great Seal of Minnesota (alternate design) by lithographer Louis Buechner, 1858. This seal contains familiar settler-colonial images of progress offset by a Native American man pointing to a setting sun. From Robert M. Brown's “The Great Seal of the State of Minnesota,” Minnesota History 33, no. 3 (Autumn 1952), 127.

Alternate design of the Great Seal of Minnesota by Charles F. Lowe, 1858. Some sources identify Robert O. Sweeny as the designer instead of Lowe. From William H. C. Folsom's Fifty Years in the Northwest (St. Paul: Pioneer Press, 1888), 658. Officially adopted by the Minnesota legislature but never used, the Lowe/Sweeny design echoed themes in the territorial seal. The central waterfall represents Minnehaha Falls. A Native American warrior pointing towards the setting sun provides a counterpoint to images of farming, shipping, and other signs of “progress.”

“The Seal of Minnesota,” a poem by Mary Henderson Eastman. Originally printed in the Minnesota Pioneer, February 20, 1850, 2.

The Great Seal of Minnesota Territory, ca. 1849. From William Watts Folwell's A History of Minnesota, Vol. 1 (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1921), 461.

Watercolor artwork for the Minnesota Territorial Seal created by Seth Eastman in 1849.

The Great Seal of the Territory of Wisconsin, after 1838. The themes of oncoming civilization and retreating “savagery” were—and are—common pioneering motifs. The seals of Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, and North Dakota portray plowmen, while standalone plows appear on ten others. Kansas and North Dakota seals depict retreating Native people as well. The seal of Wisconsin Territory, containing both a foregrounded plowman and a Native man gesturing westwards, may have influenced the Minnesota seal.

Gabriel Renville at Carlisle Indian School, some time between August 10 and August 17, 1880. Renville visited the school to bring home the body of his son, John, who had died, and his surviving daughter, Nancy. Both Nancy and John were students at the school. Photograph by John N. Choate.

Dakota lace makers display their work at a photography studio in Morton, Minnesota (Birch Coulee), ca. 1900. Pictured are (left to right): Mary Wabasha, Lucy Thomas, Amelia St. Clair, Julia Jones, Julia Lawrence, and Hanna Wells. Collection III.40.102, Minnesota Historical Society.