1987 – 1988: Florence Connolly Shipek
Florence Shipek was a scholar of early California history, with
over fifty years of research and testimony as an expert witness
for Indians struggling to regain and maintain control of their
land. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 1938, receiving
her Master’s degree in 1939, majoring in anthropology, with
minors in history and art. She also had a degree in geology from
the University of Washington. She worked for the U.S. Navy during
World War II, and later settled in San Diego with her husband Carl,
a marine geologist. She began working for local Indian reservations
in the 1950s, dealing with problems resulting from Public Law 280.
For decades she dealt with problems of Southern California aboriginal
peoples and nearly every county, state, and federal agency. She
received her Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in 1977 and became
a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Parkside, while continuing
her expert witness work. Dr. Shipek recently passed away on January
9, 2003 at the age of 84. Throughout her retirement, she maintained
close ties with the indigenous peoples of San Diego County. Among
her many honors, Dr. Shipek was named a distinguished scholar by
the Southwestern Anthropological Association in 1986, and in 1992
was honored with the first Spirit of Kumeyaay award. She received
the 2002 People in Preservation Lifetime Achievement Award from
the Save Our Heritage Organization.
Selected Publications
| 1965 |
Lower California Frontier: Articles from the San
Diego Union, 1870. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book
Shop. |
 (Delfina Cuero) |
| 1968 |
The Autobiography of Delfina Cuero, a Diegueño
Indian. Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop. Reprinted
in 1970 by Malki Museum Press. |
| 1977 |
A Strategy for Change: The Luiseño of Southern
California. Dissertation, University of Hawaii. |
| 1978 |
History of Southern California Mission Indians in Handbook
of North American Indians, v. 8, p. 610-618. Washington:
Smithsonian Institution. |
| 1988 |
Pushed Into the Rocks: Southern California Indian
Land Tenure, 1769-1986. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press. |
| 1991 |
Delfina Cuero: Her Autobiography, an Account of
Her Last Years, and Her Ethnobotanic Contributions.
Menlo Park: Ballena Press. |
| 1996 |
Indian labor in San Diego County, California, 1850-1900 (with
Richard L. Carrico) in Native Americans and Wage Labor:
Ethnohistorical Perspectives, pp. 198-217. Norman : University of Oklahoma
Press. |
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