Trail of Tears panel discussion at Missouri S&T
(Rolla)–A screening and panel discussion of the 2018 documentary film, “Digadohi: Lands, Cherokee, and the Trail of Tears,” this month at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla. The film focuses on the Cherokee people’s removal from traditional lands. The story begins on July 4, 2017, when the Snelson-Brinker farm near Steelville was burned down.
A criminal investigation was launched after the fire and, using archaeological and scientific methods and archival research, a group of community activists and Cherokee leaders work to rescue a historic property from the arsonist’s flames and identify the graves of the Cherokee who died on the Trail of Tears.
Guest panelists for the event will include Justice Troy Wayne Poteet, retired from the Justice of the Cherokee Supreme Court and head of the Trail of Tears Association; Galen Gritts, Cherokee spokesperson for the Alliance for Native Programs and Initiatives; Monty Dobson, director of the film, and Erin Whitson, archaeologist for the Missouri Humanities Council.
The screening will take place Thursday, February 20th, at 6:30 p-m, in room 125 Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall on the Missouri S-and-T campus. The event is free and open to the public.