How the research works

Methodology

MNFlag documents government actions and attributable public statements concerning Minnesota’s former and current state flags. It separates what records establish from what remains uncertain.

What MNFlag counts

A government action is a recorded decision, motion, resolution, proclamation, letter, display policy, or comparable act by a Minnesota government body. A case is published after the jurisdiction and qualifying action have been verified through attributable evidence.

How cases are verified

Researchers first identify a possible action, then confirm the jurisdiction, date, government body, action, and outcome. Candidate material stays internal until it supports a verified case. Public case pages show the evidence available in the current dataset.

Primary and secondary sources

Primary records include resolutions, minutes, agendas, meeting packets, government webpages, and official video. Local or regional reporting can confirm events and preserve statements, but it is labeled separately from government records. When a primary record is unavailable, the case page states that limitation.

Statements and argument coding

Statements are published only with an attributable speaker and source. Direct quotations use quotation marks; stored paraphrases are labeled as paraphrases. MNFlag separately codes statements into a 13-category taxonomy so recurring arguments can be examined across cases. Those categories are MNFlag’s analysis and are not necessarily words used by the speaker.

How discovery works

MNFlag searches government archives, meeting systems, local reporting, and other public sources. A search result may become a candidate for review. Only verified material becomes an established public case.

What a negative search means

A negative search means a defined search did not locate qualifying material. It does not prove that no action, statement, or news coverage exists. Archives vary, links disappear, and some records require direct requests.

Relationships between cases

Connections are shown at three evidence levels: an explicit documented connection, similar language without transmission evidence, or chronology alone. Similarity and sequence do not by themselves establish influence.

Analytical context

Election and demographic data appears only when its geographic level can be labeled accurately. It describes context and is not presented as a cause of an action.

Corrections

MNFlag reviews correction reports against the underlying sources and updates the canonical research record when a correction is supported. See how to report a correction.