Episode 6 - "They rode for Parker" - Oak Cemetery, Fort Smith, Arkansas
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Jennie and Diane speak with Ryan M. Seidemann, lawyer, archeologist, anthropologist, professor, and cemeterian as he tells the true story of the U.S. Marshalls and Judge Issac Parker (often known as the Hangin' Judge) at Fort Smith, Arkansas from the 1870's through the 1890's. He takes us through Oak Cemetery and explains how they chose to be remembered vs. how the generations of the mid-late 20th century have embraced their wild west legacy. From novels to Hollywood movies with John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges we learn how the modern U.S. Marshalls are embracing their history, the good, the bad and the ugly to paint a true picture of life on the borderlands of the old west.
Ryan M. Seidemann, J.D., Ph.D, RPA
Lawyer, Archeologist, Anthropologist, Professor
Ryan M. Seidemann earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Florida State University, focusing on human remains analysis with research at the Smithsonian Institution and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He completed a Master’s degree in Anthropology at Louisiana State University with a thesis on Maya skeletal remains from Belize. His early work in cultural resource management ranged across the Southeastern United States, with surveys and site excavations on Archaic peoples to inhabitants of New Orleans in the nineteenth century. Ryan later earned both a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Juris Doctorate at LSU and, in 2021, a Ph.D. in Urban Studies/Urban Anthropology from the University of New Orleans, with a dissertation on cemetery preservation inequities in New Orleans.
Throughout his law practice in both Louisiana and Vermont, Ryan has continuously show cased his ability to balance the intersecting worlds of cultural resources management, archaeology, cemeteries, and law. Ryan previously served as an Assistant Attorney General (2005-2024) and Chief of the Lands & Natural Resources Section (2007-2024) of the Louisiana Department of Justice. In that position, he represented the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the Office of State Lands, Louisiana Cemetery Board, and the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, among other government agencies. He has argued cases in most Louisiana district courts, all Louisiana appellate courts, and multiple times before the Louisiana Supreme Court. Ryan has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications on hu… Read More