Paul Apodaca

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Apodaca with a third grade student Dr. Paul Apodaca with student.JPG
Apodaca with a third grade student

Paul Apodaca (born in Los Angeles, California) is an emeritus associate professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Chapman University.

Contents

Personal background

Apodaca was born in Los Angeles and raised in Tustin, California. [1] His father's family were from the eastern side of the Navajo Reservation, of the Ma'ii deeshgiishinii Clan (Jemez Clan), and his mother's family are Mixton. [2] Apodaca received his masters' of arts degree in American Indian studies and his doctorate degree in Folklore and Mythology from University of California, Los Angeles. He was the Outstanding Graduate Student of 1996. [3] Apodaca lives in Orange, California. [4]

Professional career

Academic

Apodaca is an emeritus associate professor of Anthropology and American Studies at Chapman University and a visiting professor at UCLA. He has worked as a regional advisor to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian (representing the California-Nevada-Utah region).

Apodaca was a curator at the Bowers Museum in Orange County over a period of seventeen years.

In 2008, Apodaca was the Lecturer in Residence at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, a part of Autry National Center, where he made presentations entitled The Mayan end of the World?, Unravelling the mystery of cogged stones used in early California, and Imagery and reality: the role of American Indians in film and television. [5]

In 2008, Apodaca was a keynote speaker at the University of California Native American Professional Development Conference. [6]

Apodaca recovered and restored once-lost recordings of traditional Agua Caliente tribal leader Joe Patencio, Alvino Siva, and others singing bird songs of Cahuilla oral literature. [7] The collection is archived at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs.

Cultural advisor

Apodaca was a selector for the NMAI Native American Film and Video Festival. [8] He has also been a member of the Native California Network, and a board member for the California Council for the Humanities. [9] He has been employed by the Arizona Commission on the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the California Arts Council, and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Apodaca was a consultant on Indian culture and imagery to Knott's Berry Farm and the Walt Disney Company. [10] He was a technical advisor on the television mini-series, Lonesome Dove (1989). [11]

He was a creative consultant for the Disney film, Planes: Fire and Rescue 2004, for which he helped develop the character Windlifter, a heavy-lift helicopter who is portrayed as an American Indian and voiced by actor Wes Studi. [12] Apodaca assisted with design elements on Windlifter’s image, and in a script element in which Windlifter recounts an American Indian folktale of how Coyote was renewed by fire. [13]

Apodaca, Henry Koerper of Cypress College and Jon Erikson of the University of California Irvine, promoted California state legislation that added an 8,000 year old carving of a bear to the list of California state symbols as the official California State Prehistoric Artifact. [14]

Editorial advisor

Apodaca served as a contributing editor to News from Native California. [15] He has edited the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology and has been an adviser for Pearson Scott Foresman publishers. [2] Apodaca serves on the editorial board of Malki Museum Press. [16]

Performing artist

Apodaca sat in as a spoken word performer with The Dave Brubeck Quartet during the 2009 Brubeck Festival, a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Brubeck's legendary album, Time Out. [17]

Apodaca also appeared in a special feature segment of the DVD release of the Nicolas Cage film, Knowing (2009) where he discussed the cultural significance of apocalypse myths. [18]

Apodaca performed music for the Academy Award winning film, Broken Rainbow (1986), a documentary film that helped to stop the relocation of twelve thousand Navajos in northern Arizona. [19] [20]

List of awards

Selected bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum of the American Indian</span> Museum in Washington, D.C.

The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cahuilla</span> Native American people, living in the inland areas of southern California

The Cahuilla, also known as ʔívil̃uqaletem or Ivilyuqaletem, are a Native American people of the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the inland areas of southern California. Their original territory encompassed about 2,400 square miles (6,200 km2). The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California. It was bounded to the north by the San Bernardino Mountains, to the south by Borrego Springs and the Chocolate Mountains, to the east by the Colorado Desert, and to the west by the San Jacinto Plain and the eastern slopes of the Palomar Mountains.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation is a federally recognized tribe of the Cahuilla, located in Riverside County, California, United States. The Cahuilla inhabited the Coachella Valley desert and surrounding mountains between 5000 BCE and 500 CE. With the establishment of the reservations, the Cahuilla were officially divided into 10 sovereign nations, including the Agua Caliente Band.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mission Indians</span> Indigenous peoples who were forcibly relocated to missions in Southern California

Mission Indians are the indigenous peoples of California who lived in Southern California and were forcibly relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at 15 Franciscan missions in Southern California and the Asistencias and Estancias established between 1796 and 1823 in the Las Californias Province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

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The Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology is a leading regional source of scholarly information on the ethnography, archaeology, linguistics, and Native American history of the Western United States created by Harry Lawton.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians</span> Indian tribe in California, United States

The Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians is a federally recognized Cahuilla band of Native Americans based in Coachella, California. They are one of the smallest tribal nations in the United States, consisting of only 16 members, seven of whom are adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Siva Saubel</span> Native American leader and scholar

Katherine Siva Saubel was a Native American scholar, educator, tribal leader, author, and activist committed to preserving her Cahuilla history, culture and language. Her efforts focused on preserving the language of the Cahuilla. Saubel is acknowledged nationally and internationally as one of California's most respected Native American leaders. She received an honorary PhD in philosophy from La Sierra University, Riverside, California, and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California at the University of California, Riverside.

Wiiwish, also known as shawii, is acorn mush, was one of the main food staples of the indigenous peoples of California. Acorns were gathered in the fall before the rain came. To harvest the acorns, Californian Natives would crack open the shell and pull out the inner part of the acorn. This part of the acorn was then smashed with a mortar and pestle until it was a flour-like consistency. This flour-like substance was then leached several times with water until the acorn mush was no longer bitter. This mush was then cooked in a waterproof basket with hot rocks and then served. California Indians continue to eat wiiwish both the traditional way and with alterations. These alterations include using other tools to grind down the acorns such as a coffee grinder or/and adding sugar or other seasonings to the finished wiiwish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cahuilla language</span> Endangered Uto-Aztecan language of California

Cahuilla, or Ivilyuat, is an endangered Uto-Aztecan language, spoken by the various tribes of the Cahuilla Nation, living in the Coachella Valley, San Gorgonio Pass and San Jacinto Mountains region of southern California. The Cahuilla demonyms include Ɂívil̃uwenetem or Iviatam–speakers of Ivilyuat (Iviɂa)–or táxliswet meaning "person." A 1990 census revealed 35 speakers in an ethnic population of 800. With such a decline, Ivilyuat is classified as "critically endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as most speakers are middle-aged or older with limited transmission rates to children.

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References

  1. Heritage Tustin Area Historical Society newsletter vol 32:2 April/May 2007. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  2. 1 2 Paul Apodaca Lapahie website
  3. Archives Daily Bruin website.
  4. Paul Apodaca UCLA winter 1999.
  5. Southwest Museum Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine Autry National center website.
  6. Keynote speaker Archived 2012-12-12 at archive.today AIRP website.
  7. Cahuilla OAC website.
  8. Paul Apodaca Native Networks website 1997.
  9. Alumni Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine American Indian Studies UCLA.
  10. Paul Apodaca Lapahie website.
  11. Lonesome Dove Internet Movie Data Base.
  12. Planes: Fire and Rescue Stitch Kingdom website.
  13. Winging it with Wes Studi Archived 2015-06-03 at the Wayback Machine Indian Country Today website July 14, 2014.
  14. California prehistoric artefact Netstate website.
  15. Paul Apodaca Archived 2008-12-05 at the Wayback Machine Heyday Books website.
  16. Board and staff Malki Museum website.
  17. Time Out Archived 2012-12-12 at archive.today University of the Pacific.
  18. Knowing DVD magazine website.
  19. Awards Chapman University website October 14, 2008.
  20. broken rainbow IMDB.
  21. Award winners Archived 2009-09-01 at the Wayback Machine Orange county government website
  22. The People's Path Archived 2008-09-07 at the Wayback Machine Native Americas Journal 2001
  23. Honorary Host Committee for the 40th Year Archived 2012-08-04 at archive.today Ethnic Studies, UCLA.
  24. Apodaca P. and Angelo G. "Gabrielino/Tongva culture" (video) Native American Public Telecommunications, Inc./Vision Maker Video, Lincoln, Nebraska 1991.
  25. Apodaca P. "Permanent sandpainting as an art form" in Heth C. (Ed.) Sharing a Heritage: American Indian Arts UCLA AISC Press 1991.
  26. Apodaca P. "Sharing information: the Cahuilla tribe and the Bowers Museum" in News from Native California 5(2) February–April 1991.
  27. Apodaca P. "California Indian shamanism and California Indian nights" in News from Native California 7(2): 24-26 1994.
  28. Apodaca P. and Labbe A. J. "Images of power: masterworks of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art" University of Washington Press, 1995.
  29. Apodaca P. et al "Archaeological, ethnohistoric, and historic notes regarding ORA-58 and other sites along the Lower Santa Ana River drainage, Costa Mesa" in Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly 32(1):1–36 1996.
  30. "Testaments of hope" Chronicle of Higher Education February 20, 1998.
  31. Apodaca P. "Powerful images: portrayals of Native America" in American Anthropologist 101(4): 818 1998.
  32. Apodaca P. and Madrigal L. "Cahuilla bird songs" in California Chronicles 2(2): 4–8 November 1999.
  33. Kozak and Lopez, "Devil sickness and devil songs: Tohono O'odham poetics" in American Ethnologist 28(2): 496-497 2001.
  34. "Cactus stones: symbolism and representation in Southern California and Seri indigenous folk art and artifacts" Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 23(2):215-228 2001
  35. "Hollywood Tragicomedy" Indian Country Today, November 30, 2007.
  36. "Under West's wing, NMAI made history" Indian Country Today, January 18, 2008.
  37. Apodaca P. and Saubel K. S. "Founding a tribal museum: the Malki Museum" in Kennedy F.(Ed.) American Indian places: a guide to American Indian landmarks Houghton Mifflin, New York 2008.
  38. Apodaca P. "Native American Art" in Beal T.(Ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts Oxford University Press, NY 2015.
  39. "Wikikmal: the birdsong tradition of the Cahuilla Indians" American Indian Studies Center, UCLA.