The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden was supposed to reopen to the public Saturday after a nearly two-year-long renovation. Instead, Native American construction crews will donate their time to dismantle one of the garden’s most prominent pieces that day.
And that’s not the only change to come at the Walker Art Center, which operates the sculpture garden.
The piece is Sam Durant’s “Scaffold,” which depicts seven gallows used in official U.S. executions, including one used in the 1862 hanging of 38 Dakota men in Mankato, Minn. Durant said at a news conference Wednesday that the piece was meant to question colonialism and capital punishment, among other themes. But protesters have been saying for the past week that it brought to mind painful subjects.
“We speak on behalf of the 38, plus two elders, who were hanged,” said filmmaker and activist Sheldon Wolfchild at the news conference, referring to two men who were later hanged at Fort Snelling, one of whom was Wolfchild’s “great-grandfather, four generations back,” Medicine Bottle. “When they dropped my grandfather, Medicine Bottle, his neck didn’t break. He hung by that rope, strangled himself. It took him 10 minutes to die.”
It’s that legacy that “Scaffold” recalls, said Wolfchild, who said he’s particularly concerned about the message the sculpture would send to children “as long as it’s standing.”
That will be only for a few days, as it turns out. Stephanie Hope Smith, a mediator who presided over meetings with Walker Art Center staff, as well as Dakota elders and representatives of the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, said the piece will start coming down Friday, after a ceremony by Dakota elders. The sculpture will become the “intellectual property” of the Dakota. The wood portions of it will be transported to a sacred site at Fort Snelling, where they will be burned. The steel and concrete parts of the sculpture will also be removed in time for the sculpture garden’s rescheduled reopening on June 10.
The weeklong sculpture controversy, which has included angry protests at the sculpture garden, could lead to changes in the way the Walker Art Center and Minneapolis park board work together. In the current agreement between the two, the Walker does not need approval for pieces it places on the garden grounds, which the park board owns.
“I expect this situation may (cause) us to have a different conversation about how decisions are made,” Minneapolis park board Superintendent Jayne Miller said at the media event.
Olga Viso, the Walker’s executive director, said there will be institutional changes within the Walker, as well — some of them over a period of time. She said that would include diversifying the staff, board and advisory committees. She also announced plans to commission work from Native American artists, possibly for placement on the same site where “Scaffold” now stands.
“We need to think differently about the process of how we engage communities,” said Viso, who said this week’s actions begin “the long process to rebuild trust” with “the Dakota people, our city and our state.”
Viso — who said the Walker is “deeply, deeply sorry” about the pain caused by the controversy — explained that Walker representatives acquired “Scaffold” in 2014, after seeing it in Germany, where it seemed to have a different meaning than it did at the Walker.
“In this context and in this place, the Mankato structure had a different register,” said Viso, who described the dismantling and burning of “Scaffold” as a “transformation” that could begin healing.
For his part, Durant, whose work is being “transformed,” said the controversy has been a learning experience.
“I had not met with the people who have been living with this history for 500 years,” said Durant, adding that he would not include the Mankato portion of the sculpture if he made it now. “I want to apologize for the trauma, the suffering my work has caused.”
Representatives of the Walker and Durant focused on moving forward, but Native American representatives continued to express dismay that the Walker erected the piece, and did so without any input from Dakota communities.
Wolfchild also faulted educational institutions — and, specifically, the Minnesota Historical Society — for not telling the stories of Native Americans.
“We will never forget what happened,” said Cheyanne St. John, who works in the Lower Sioux Community’s Tribal Preservation Office and who argued that the context of the sculpture was wrong, citing two nearby pieces in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. “This is not something to be depicted in a sculpture garden next to a giant rooster or a spoon with a cherry on it.”
