Flag of South Dakota

How to read it

South Dakota Codified Laws § 1-6-4 (1939, amended 1963 and 1992) fixes a sky-blue field one and two-thirds as long as it is wide. The great seal, made as the constitution describes it, is centred and four-ninths of the flag’s width across, on a white background outlined in dark blue or on sky blue outlined in dark blue. Around it is a serrated gold sun five-ninths of the width across. “South Dakota” above and “The Mount Rushmore State” below follow the curve of the sun in gold letters one-eighteenth of the width high. Indoor and display flags have a gold fringe one-eighteenth of the width on the three sides away from the staff; outdoor flags need none. The present wording dates from 1992, when Representative Gordon Pederson’s measure replaced “The Sunshine State”, the Secretary of State says. The state has a pledge to its flag (§ 1-6-4.1).

Also searched as: flag of south dakota, south dakota flag, south dakota flag meaning, south dakota state flag.

The seal piece by piece

Article XXI, section 1, of the state constitution describes the seal, the Secretary of State says: in the left foreground a smelting furnace and other mine works, in the left background a range of hills, in the right foreground a farmer at his plough, in the right background a herd of cattle and a field of corn, and between them a river with a steamboat. Across the top and bottom runs the motto “Under God the People Rule”, the state motto. The outer ring reads “State of South Dakota” and “Great Seal” with the year of admission; the 1885 wording “State of Dakota” was changed in 1889.

Three flags, all still legal

The flag of 1909, designed by Ida Anding, a legislative librarian, had a gold sun with “South Dakota” and “The Sunshine State” on one side and the seal in dark blue on the other. A two-sided flag was hard and costly to make; McNeil later said that had she known more about flags she would have left the back plain. House Bill 503 of 1963 put the seal inside the sun on a single side, and the 1992 law changed the words. Both changes kept earlier flags official, and the code still says that every flag made under state law before 1 July 1992 remains an official state flag, so all three may be flown.

Who asked for the first flag

In 1909 State Senator Ernest May of Deadwood went to the state historian, Doane Robinson, about a flag. The Secretary of State’s page, quoting the Wiiyohi bulletin of 1948, says May came because the Deadwood pioneer Seth Bullock wanted one. The South Dakota Historical Society Foundation notes that Doane Robinson’s Encyclopedia of South Dakota does not mention Bullock, and that David A. Wolff, Bullock’s biographer, found no evidence he was involved.