Sam Durant's Controversial Scaffold Sculpture to be Dismantled and Ceremonially Burned After Dakota Community Protests

Following protests from the Dakota community, Sam Durant's 2012 sculpture Scaffold will be dismantled and ceremonially burned. The work references the 1862 mass execution of 38 Dakota Indians in Mankato, Minnesota, which protesters argued trivialized traumatic history. A conference involving the artist, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the city's Park and Recreation Board, and Dakota elders reached an agreement for its removal. Dismantling begins on June 2 by a native construction company and will take at least four days. The wood will be transported to the historically significant Fort Snelling area for a ceremonial burning by the Dakota Oyate. In a joint statement, Durant committed to never recreate the Dakota gallows and to transfer the work's intellectual property rights to the Dakota people. The artist apologized for the trauma caused, describing the resolution as a potential path for healing. This controversy echoes similar debates about white artists depicting minority suffering, such as Dana Schutz's painting of Emmett Till at the Whitney in New York.