Land O'Lakes

Land O'Lakes Butter announced via press release its decision to change its brand packaging as the Minnesota dairy farmer co-op nears its centennial in 2021. Gone is Mia, the feathered Indian butter maiden, who graced its packaging for generations.

The first Mia was designed in 1928 by Arthur Hanson, an illustrator at Brown and Bigelow.

Arthur Hanson

The background was changed slightly in 1939, and then Mia was last updated in the 1950s by the late artist Patrick DesJarlait, a member of the Red Lake Objibwe.

"As Land O'Lakes looks toward our 100th anniversary, we've recognized we need new packaging that reflects the foundation and heart of our company culture – and nothing does that better than our farmer-owners whose milk is used to produce Land O'Lakes' dairy products," said Beth Ford, President and CEO, Land O'Lakes.

Patrick DesJarlait

New packaging

New packaging

Given the growing number of institutions and companies who have made similar decisions about Native American symbolism and brands  – Dartmouth College as far back as 1974, scores of school athletic teams since, and the Cleveland Indians baseball team's retirement of Chief Wahoo at the end of the 2018 season, the pendulum has certainly swung. Yet hundreds of companies continue to use similar brands and logos developed decades ago if not longer.

What's not especially helpful are the opportunistic and politically correct cries of racism, white privilege, colonialism, and woke finger pointing and shaming. But in America in 2020, a box of butter isn't just a box of butter when politics are at stake.

Now a middle-aged Baby Boomer, I am embarrassed to admit I cut and folded the box like this in the mid-1960s. MAD Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman made be do it. I'm sure I wasn't alone.