Coronado: The New Evidence

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World Premiere! Featuring a post-film Q&A with director Frances Causey, Dr. Deni Seymour, Tony Burrell and Allen Dart from Tucson’s Old Pueblo Archaeology Center.

Coronado: The New Evidence explores one of the longest-standing archaeological mysteries in the United States – the land route taken by famed explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, who from 1539-1542 was attempting to find vast wealth and fame while traveling north from Mexico. Through the work of Arizona-based archaeologist Dr. Deni Seymour, it is now known where Coronado’s expedition first crossed into what would later become the continental United States.

The filmmakers have exclusive access to the Coronado archaeological site where their cameras have been rolling for three years as Dr. Seymour unearthed hundreds of Coronado artifacts including a breathtaking 15th-century “wall gun” that is the earliest firearm found in the continental United States. This discovery has dire, catastrophic far-reaching implications—not only for US history—but for the Indigenous people, the Sobaipuri, and their descendants, the Wa:k O’odham, who first encountered Coronado. The Wa:k O’odham soberly and thoughtfully share their reaction and meaning of this breakthrough discovery. Coronado was not exempt from the well-known litany of crimes committed by white Europeans against American Indigenous peoples.

Dr. Seymour also discovered evidence at the site of a Sobaipuri revolt that predates the American Revolution, making it the first successful Native American revolt in what is now the U.S.. This single battle kept White explorers out of Arizona for another 150+ years. But perhaps the biggest discovery by Seymour is that this Coronado site is the first established Spanish colony in the Southwest and the third ever established in what is now the United States. (Dir. by Frances Causey, 2023, USA, 59 mins., Not Rated)

Frances Causey is an Emmy award-winning, Tucson-based documentary filmmaker, journalist, and TED contributor with 15 years of experience as a Senior Producer at CNN and previous work hailed as a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Her body of work has been featured on Netflix, PBS, and The History Channel, among other international outlets.  Her feature-length documentaries include Is Your Story Making You Sick?, Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? and The Long Shadow.