Оңтүстік Дакота штатының туы

Official flag of the U. S. state of South Dakota

The current flag of South Dakota was adopted in 1992 to represent the U. S. state of South Dakota. It consists of a field of sky blue charged with a version (in navy blue on white) of the state seal in the center, surrounded by gold triangles representing the sun's rays, surrounded in turn by inscriptions in gold sans serif capitals of "south dakota" on top and "the [[mount rushmore" (the state nickname) on the bottom. The sun represents the common weather in South Dakota. The first state flag was designed and adopted in 1909. This original flag was bi faced, with a sun motif on one side and the state seal on the other. A redesign in 1963 embedded the state seal inside the original flag's sun motif. The inscription on the bottom was "the sunshine state" before it was changed in 1992.

The first flag of South Dakota was designed by Ida McNeil in 1909. Ernest May, a state legislator from Deadwood, approached South Dakota Department of History superintendent Doane Robinson about the lack of a state flag. McNeil was then a legislative reference librarian at the state department. McNeil later recalled that during their meeting, Robinson turned to her and told May, "Miss Anding will make you a flag". Seth Bullock, a Deadwood lawman, is sometimes credited as having brought forth the original request for a state flag to May, who in turn brought it to the state department. This claim might have originated from a 1948 edition of The Wi Iyohi, a monthly bulletin published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. However, South Dakota historians and biographers of Bullock have not uncovered any evidence supporting this claim, and Robinson's 1925 Encyclopedia of South Dakota did not include any mention of Bullock's involvement. The first two flags went to the Secretary of State and Seth Bullock. Bullock's flag is now preserved at the state archives. who had removed it from storage in 2013 while repairs were being done to the display.

By 1963, the need for a revised flag was evident. The two sided design was difficult and costly to reproduce—about $75 for materials in 1963—and McNeil recreated the flags upon request for various state organizations. The designs on both sides often showed through to the other. On February 3, 1966, the South Dakota Legislature approved a further measure to create the Special State Flag Account, which set aside funds for the production and purchasing of new flags, and directed the finance department to keep on hand a stock of flags to be distributed as needed.

Following the adoption of the new state nickname as "the Mount Rushmore state", State Representative Gordon Pederson introduced a new bill to change the wording on the state flag. Although the new design was adopted and remains in use today, the 1963 and 1992 bills both included language that the previous versions of the state flag were still valid to use. Hunhoff introduced the bill on January 25, 2012; it was referred to the State Affairs committee. On February 6, Immediately after being amended, the bill was "deferred to the 41st legislative day".

In January 2024, another bill that would have created a South Dakota state flag design commission was killed in the same manner to the 2012 proposal.