The Navajo Indians were referred to by the Apache as "Yuttahih" meaning "one that is higher up." Europeans misunderstood this term to refer to the tribes living higher in the mountains than the Navajo, the Utes, and the territory was subsequently called the "land of the Utes" or Utah.

Utah's official flag was adopted in 1913. The flag has a gold fringe border against a dark blue field with the state seal in the center. The state seal was designed by Harry Emmett Edwards in 1896. Symbolic of industriousness , the center of the seal is a behive. Above the behive is bald eagle. Flanking both sides of the behive are U.S. flags. Sego lilies which are the state flower and represent peace, surrounded the behive. The word "INDUSTRY" is on a shield with the year 1847 beneath the shield.1847 is the year that Brigham Young led a group of his Mormon followers to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah in order to find religious freedom and establish a new base for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. below all of these images is the year 1896, when Utah was admitted into the Union.