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Montana
Use	Civil and state flag
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	July 1, 1981; 43 years ago
Design	The Great Seal of the State of Montana on a blue field. Above the seal the text “MONTANA” in yellow.

The flag of the state of Montana consists of the image of the Montana state seal centered on a blue field.

History

Within the seal, a plow, shovel, and pick rest in a field in front of the Great Falls of the Missouri River. The ribbon contains the state motto, ORO Y PLATA, which is Spanish for “gold and silver". The current flag was adopted in 1905, and the word “MONTANA” above the seal was added in 1981. In 1985, the flag was again modified to specify the font used in “MONTANA”: Helvetica Bold.^[1]^[2] Before it was adopted as a state flag, it was used by Montana troops deploying for the Spanish–American War.^[3]

The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA) declared the flag of Montana to be the third worst state/provincial flag, 70th in a field of 72 in a list that contained all the provinces of Canada, U.S. states and U.S. territories. Georgia's flag was named the worst, but has since been changed, and Nebraska's flag was named second worst.^[4] NAVA stated that about half of U.S. states used blue fields, which rendered them difficult to distinguish; furthermore, the survey ranked flags which had both words and complex seals the lowest.

Proposed changes

In 1974, the Montana Legislature considered adopting a new flag to replace the 1905 design. The first design submitted for proposal had a white field with three stylized mountain peaks of black in the upper hoist, and a green horizontal stripe along the bottom. The second proposal was designed by James Croft and featured a blue stripe representing Montana’s "Big Sky State" nickname, a white stripe for the state’s pure rivers, and a green stripe symbolizing forests and fields. A stylized mountain silhouette symbolized the "Land of Shining Mountains" and the Spanish word montaña (mountainous), while a copper arrowhead at the staff finial honored Montana’s Indigenous heritage.^[5] However, on February 8, 1975, the Senate rejected Croft's proposal by a vote of 30-19, postponing further flag redesign considerations for at least a year.

In 1979, Edward Mooney, an undergraduate at Montana State University, along with friends, designed another alternative flag. The design featured a green bottom third to represent Montana’s productive land and a blue top two-thirds for the “Big Sky” slogan, separated by a white line that formed an "M" on the left side, symbolizing both Montana and the state’s geographic divide between the Rocky Mountains in the west and Great Plains in the east. A white five-pointed star above the “M” symbolized Montana’s statehood, while the white color also represented the snows of winter.^[6] Mooney and his group presented the design to Governor Thomas Lee Judge and members of the Montana Legislature, with all parties refusing to consider the change. However, the 1981 legislature did agree to add the word “MONTANA” to the existing flag, which remains the current flag to this day.

In 2021, Democratic Rep. Moffie Funk proposed a bill to study the possibility of designing a new state flag, with an emphasis on evaluating whether the flag truly represents Montana's diversity and magnificence. Republican Rep. Caleb Hinkle then proposed an amendment to Funk's bill that would add firearms to the state flag as a tribute to Montana’s history with pioneers, soldiers, Native tribes, and hunters. His design concept suggested including semi-automatic rifles, such as the AR-15, but it faced strong criticism, including from Democratic Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy of the Chippewa Cree tribe.^[7] Windy Boy pointed out the negative historical associations of firearms for Native Americans, and lawmakers ultimately voted against Hinkle’s amendment, with only 12 in favor and 88 opposed. Funk’s original proposal to create a committee to consider a new design also failed with a vote of 37-63.