DEADWOOD, SD – TUESDAY MAY 16, 2017 – The public is invited to a special preview screening of SDPB’s latest documentary project Deadwood Pioneer: A Face from the Past.The free screening will be held Tuesday, May 16, at 7pm at the Deadwood Mountain Grand in Deadwood, SD. A panel discussion and Q&A follows. The evening includes music provided by The Center of the Nation Brass Quintet.
In the five years since skeletal remains were uncovered in Deadwood’s Presidential Neighborhood, historians and scientists have worked avidly to compile a social and genetic background on the individual unearthed during a home construction project.
Deadwood Pioneer: A Face from the Past maps the work of the archeologists, historians, and forensic experts who have pieced together the short life of a man whose skeletal remains were unearthed near what is now the intersection of Jackson and Taylor streets. Buried in an unmarked grave, the remains were left behind when the original cemetery was relocated to the hills above Deadwood in 1878. The remains were reinterred at Deadwood’s Mount Moriah Cemetery in a 2016 ceremony.
A fascinating blend of science and history, Deadwood Pioneer: A Face from the Past reveals the likely history and ancestry of a young pioneer and puts a face on Deadwood’s hardscrabble beginnings. Deadwood Pioneer: A Face from the Pastpremieres on SDPB TV on Monday, May 22 at 8pm (9 CT).
The program is made possible, in part, with support from the City of Deadwood; Deadwood Historic Preservation; the South Dakota Dental Foundation, and the Friends of SDPB.
About the panelists
Dr. Angie Ambers is a DNA analyst for the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. She specializes in characterization and identification of contemporary, historical, and archaeological human skeletal remains.
Dr. Eric Bartelink is apProfessor of physical anthropology and director of the Human Identification Laboratory and the Stable Isotope Preparation Laboratory at California State University, Chico. He is president of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology and a member of Team California for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Tom David, D.D.S. has been active in forensic odontology for more than 33 years. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee, Graduate School of Medicine and a member of the American Society of Forensic Odontology (ASFO) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS). He is a consultant in Forensic Odontology to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the State Of Georgia Medical Examiner’s Office since 1983.
Kevin Kuchenbecker has been the Historic Preservation Officer for the City of Deadwood since May 2006. A South Dakota native, Kevin attended South Dakota State University majoring in History with an emphasis in Architecture. He serves on Preserve South Dakota and numerous local boards including the Chamber of Commerce, Deadwood History, Inc., and the Lead Rifle & Pistol Club.
Lennard Hopper, D.D.S. has been a practicing general dentist in Deadwood for the last 11 years. Dr. Hopper provided dental radiographs of the maxilla and mandible recovered from the site and provided radiographic analysis regarding the age of the individual, condition of the dentition, restorative materials present in a number of teeth, and clues that these findings may provide about the life of the individual.
Katie Lamie is Senior Archaeologist and Repository Manager at the South Dakota State Historical Society Archaeological Research Center in Rapid City. She directed the state’s burial program efforts during the discovery and archaeological excavation of the historic Deadwood human skeletal remains in March 2012.
Michael Runge is the Archivist and Collections Manager for the City of Deadwood and the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission. Since 2002, Runge has researched and chronicled the history of Deadwood’s first historic cemetery located in the Ingleside Townsite, (today’s Presidential neighborhood). After the 2012 discovery of unidentified remains from this cemetery, Runge was instrumental in organizing the five year forensic investigation into the identity of the individual.
Chad Andersen has been a television producer with SDPB for 17 years, where he is currently the producer of SDPB’s premier video-magazine Dakota Life. A multiple-Emmy-nominee, he produced the 2012 Emmy Award winning Kings of the Court, a documentary about the history of boys basketball in South Dakota. He is the producer of Deadwood Pioneer: A Face from the Past.
Deadwood Pioneer: A Face from the Past premieres Monday, May 22, 9pm (8 MT) on SDPB1.
