Dakota elders have hit pause on plans to hold a ceremonial burning of the wood from "Scaffold," the sculpture modeled in part on the gallows used to hang 38 Dakota men in 1862.
The wood has been moved to an undisclosed Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board facility, giving Dakota elders more time to come to a joint decision about its fate.
"The elders may decide that the wood from the sculpture should not be burned and instead should be used/disposed in some other way. Or they may choose to proceed," said a statement from mediator Stephanie Hope Smith, who has been facilitating talks between Dakota elders and officials of Walker Art Center and the city of Minneapolis. "But this decision will be made [in] their way and their time at the site of their choosing."
The agreement reached last Wednesday called for Los Angeles artist Sam Durant's work to be dismantled, then transported from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden to Fort Snelling where it was to be ceremonially burned. Work proceeded quickly after a ceremony Friday at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden where prayers were shared, sage was burned, a bowl of tobacco offerings passed around, then chain saws tore into the two-story-high, wood-and-steel structure.
"Everything happened so fast and we had to coordinate quickly with our elders and follow through with the process to get [the sculpture] down as soon as we could," said Sheldon Wolfchild, a filmmaker from the Lower Sioux Agency who is part of the Dakota elders council. "Now that it is down, we are allowing other elders to work together again, to have another meeting to decide how the wood will be disposed of."
That meeting will come sometime later in June with a broader group — including elders and spiritual leaders from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and possibly Montana and Canada.
Minnesota, or Mni Sota, was home to the Dakota for hundreds of years. Facing starvation after land treaties were broken and food rations denied by U.S. government agents, they took up arms. After the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, the Dakota people were dispersed to other states and Canada.
"We are allowing elders who live out of the state of Minnesota to be involved" in the decision, said Wolfchild. "In our ceremonies, we have never had such a burning ceremony. But that's up to our spiritual leaders to decide."