Walker Art Center director regrets not discussing 'difficult' new sculpture with American Indians

[n2doc]

By ALICIA ELER , STAR TRIBUNE
May 27, 2017 - 2:44 PM


The Walker Art Center’s executive director expressed regret Friday to Minnesota’s American Indian communities over tensions raised by a new sculpture, “Scaffold,” a gallows-inspired work based in part on the hanging of 38 Dakota tribe members in Mankato in 1862.

It will debut at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden June 3.

“I should have engaged leaders in the Dakota and broader Native communities in advance of the work’s siting, and I apologize for any pain and disappointment that the sculpture might elicit,” Olga Viso wrote in an open letter to The Circle, a Twin Cities newspaper that serves the American Indian community.

Several protesters gathered Friday outside the garden, which is still under construction. Signs posted on the chain-link fence read: “Not Your Story” and “Hate Crime.”

“It’s five generations ago, and really we have to realize that 1862 was not that long ago,” said Sasha Houston Brown, who is Dakota. “I think it should publicly be taken down so we can see it come down. It’s really traumatizing for our people to look at that and have it just appear without any warning or idea that they were doing this. And it’s not art to us.”

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http://m.startribune.com/walker-art-center-director-regrets-not-involving-american-indians-in-new-sculpture-acquisition/424680473/

[mn9driver]

1. The Dakota war was ugly.

The causes of it were ugly, the conduct of it was ugly and the aftermath was ugly.

Over 500 Minnesota settlers died in it. After the hangings, the US pushed the Dakota into reservations in South Dakota and Nebraska, where the conflict continued and included Little Big Horn and Wounded knee, 30 years later.

Hopefully the sculpture will get people talking and this terrible history can be more widely known and understood. It was a very dark time.

Update: The artist and the museum have decided to remove the sculpture.