Attend a screening of the 2018 documentary film “Digadohi: Lands, Cherokee, and the Trail of Tears” this February at Missouri S&T. A panel discussion with the film’s creators and Native American leaders will be held after the film.

The screening will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, Room 125 Butler-Carlton Civil Engineering Hall on the Missouri S&T campus, located at 1401 N. Pine St. in Rolla. The event is free and open to the public.

“Digadohi: Lands, Cherokee, and the Trail of Tears,” directed by Monty Dobson, focuses on the Cherokee people’s removal from traditional lands. The story begins on July 4, 2017, when the Snelson-Brinker farm, near Steelville, Missouri, 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. The film chronicles a year of those investigations and weaves the family stories – European, African and Native – that were unearthed there into the story of America.

Guest panelists for this 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 film is presented by Missouri Humanities and the screening is hosted by Missouri S&T’s history and political science department and student diversity initiatives.