The PBS documentary film Searching for Sequoyah (ᎾᏍᎩᏃ ᏍᏏᏉᏯ ᎠᏥᏲᎭ), on which Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Joshua B. Nelson was co-producer, co-writer and host, explores the life of the famed inventor of the Cherokee writing system. At the end of his life, he journeyed to Mexico to persuade a faction of Cherokees to rejoin the Nation following removal to Indian Territory. He never returned from this trip, and no one is certain what became of him. To explore his legacy, Professor Nelson's team conducted several interviews with his descendants and people who are working to preserve the Cherokee language, syllabary, and culture. The project involves interviewees not as objects of study but as guides and partners in the structural development of the film, in keeping with culturally sensitive research protocols such as outlined by Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Their experiences suggest ways filmmakers can cultivate more equilateral relationships and respect the authority of Native perspectives in telling stories of Indigenous triumph and perseverance, rather than conventional accounts of tragedy and defeat.

This public event by Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Joshua B. Nelson is sponsored by the departments of Mathematics, English, Cinematic Arts, Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, History, and Anthropology, as well as the Native American and Indigenous Studies program.