Land O’ Lakes drops iconic Native American maiden from package

The Native American maiden who has been front and center on Land O’Lakes products will no longer be featured on butter containers.

After almost 100 years, the company’s icon, known as Mia, was removed in advance of its 100th anniversary. Images of the farmer-owners who produce the milk used to make products are being added to the packaging.

The lake and woods were kept for the new design, and the words “farmer-owned” are more pronounced.

The company announced the change of the logo in February, but media outlets and consumers are just noticing it.

Some say the original label is culturally insensitive, the Twin Cities Pioneer Press reported.

North Dakota state Rep. Ruth Buffalo (D) called the image of the Native American woman, known as Mia, racist, telling The Grand Forks Tribune, that the illustration goes "hand-in-hand with human and sex trafficking of our women and girls...by depicting Native women as sex objects," the Huffington Post reported.

Buffalo called the change, "a good gesture and a step forward," according to the Huffington Post.

This isn't the first time the design was changed. There have been at least three edits to the packaging: 1939, the 1950s and a recent change that cropped Mia from kneeling, offering butter, to a head-and-shoulders view, the Pioneer Press reported.