Dr. Deni Seymour is known as the Sherlock Holmes of history  [Chris Zimmerman, B Troop Commander,  4th US Cavalry Rgmt , Ft Huachuca]; also called the Perry Mason of archaeology [Dr. R. Henderson]. She is an internationally recognized scholar that focuses on indigenous connections with their past and on protohistoric and historic Native American and Spanish colonial and Spanish expeditionary archaeology and ethnohistory. For 40 years she has passionately studied the ancestral Apache, Sobaipuri-O’odham, and lesser-known mobile groups (Jano, Jocome, Manso, Suma, and Jumano) who were present at the same time in the American Southwest. She has excavated two Spanish-period presidios (Santa Cruz de Terrenate and Tubac), numerous Kino-period mission sites, and several indigenous sites of the period. She works with local indigenous groups in reconnecting with their heritage. Among these are the O'odham, Lipan, Chihene, Manso, Piro, and Jumano. Her current work is also focused on Vazquez de Coronado and Marcos de Niza expeditionary archaeology. By these means and these diverse foci she is rewriting the history of the pre-Spanish, expeditionary/exploration, and colonial period southern Southwest. She is an award-winning author and has published extensively on these groups and this period, with more than 100 publications in refereed journals, edited volumes, and popular venues, and has served as guest editor for several journals. She has also authored seven books, with four more in the works.

She received her doctorate and MA degrees in Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1990 and her BAs with honors in both Anthropology and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1980. She has taught, was employed by a number of state and federal agencies, and has worked for a number of cultural resource management firms, including one she founded and directed. Now she is a full-time research archaeologist tangentially affiliated with two academic institutions and the nonprofit research group Jornada Research Institute and she serves on the boards of non-profit organizations.