Land O’Lakes removes Native American woman from packaging design

Character has appeared on front of the butter brands packaging since 1928

Two types of Land O'Lakes creamery butter with the original packaging (Getty Images)

Land O’Lakes has redesigned its packaging, getting rid of its controversial emblem of a Native American woman during the process.

The figure has appeared on the front of the butter’s packaging since 1928, but as the company “looks toward [to its] 100th anniversary” it has removed her in the new design.

The packaging will now feature images of real Land O’Lakes farmers and co-op members, along with the phrase “Proud to be Farmer-Owned", a company press release from February said.

“As a farmer-owned co-op, we strongly feel the need to better connect the men and women who grow our food with those who consume it,” said Beth Ford, president and CEO, Land O’Lakes in the release. “Our farmer-to-fork structure gives us a unique ability to bridge this divide”

“As Land O’Lakes looks toward our 100th anniversary (in 2021), we’ve recognised we need 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,” Ms Ford said.

Some critics have previously put pressure on the company to remove the woman from its design calling the native American character racist culturally insensitive.

North Dakota state Rep Ruth Buffalo, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said it goes “hand-in-hand with human and sex trafficking of our women and girls, by depicting Native women as sex objects,” according to The Grand Forks Herald.

Land O’Lakes have not given any indication that cultural sensitivity influenced the reason for the design change.

The image was previously changed from a wide pan view of the figure kneeling to a close-up portrait of the woman.

Rep Buffalo has reportedly said that her complete removal is “a good gesture and a step forward”

However she is said to have emphasised that more still needs to be done: “We as a whole need to keep pushing forward to address the underlying issues that directly impact an entire population that survived genocide,” Rep Buffalo said, according to reports.

It is unclear if the maiden image will disappear completely from the companies packaging, but no mention was made of it in the press release announcing the new design.