Robert Caldwell

PhD

headshot of Dr. Robert Caldwell.

Robert Caldwell

PhD

Robert Caldwell

PhD

Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb Louisiana
Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies
Director of Graduate Studies

Education

  • PhD, History, The University of Texas at Arlington, 2018
  • MA, Heritage Resources, Northwestern State University, 2011
  • MS, Labor Studies, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2003
  • BA, Anthropology and History, The University of New Orleans, 2001

Biographical Statement

Robert Caldwell is an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb Louisiana. His first book, Choctaw-Apache Foodways received an award from the Louisiana Folklife Commission, and he was named culture bearer. He is co-founder of the HoMinti Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching his tribe’s traditional culture.  He enjoys playing Kabutcha Toli (southeastern stickball) and is honored to be a guest in Haudenosaunee lands. 

Research Area

Caldwell’s longstanding research projects consist of three categories: maps and Native representation; ethnohistorical research on behalf of his own tribal community, and Native migration to the near southwest. 

Recent Publications

  • “Filé Man: Colson’s Creole-Indigenous Continuity” Louisiana Creole Peoplehood: Afro-Indigeneity and Community. Eds. Rain Prud’homme-Cranford, Andrew Jolivétte, and Darryl Barthé. University of Washington Press, 2021. 
  • “Persistence on the Edge: The Choctaw-Apache Community of Ebarb,” Native South. Vol. 19, 2020. 
  • “Be-ing and Longing in the shadow of Jeffrey Amherst” in Belonging in Higher Education: Perspectives and Lessons from Diverse Facultyeds. Nicolas D. Hartep, Terrell L. Strayhorn and Fred Bonner. New York: Routledge 2024.
  • “The Iconic Tipi: Spanish Mapping of Indians in Texas, the Greater Gulf, and the Southwest” The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record Vol 60 (1) Summer 2024.
  • with Thomas Parrie, eds. Choctaw-Apache Voices. Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2023. 

Courses Taught

Introduction to Indigenous Studies 

Afro-Indigeneity: Black Natives, Anti-Blackness, and Decolonization 

Survey of Indigenous History to 1871

Survey of Indigenous History Since 1872

Independent Study/Directed Readings

Indigenous Peoples and Places of North America: Native Geographies/Settler Cartography 

Indigenous Perspectives on US History 

Indigenous Workers: Native Proletarians under Capitalism

Methods and Theory in Indigenous Historical Research

Not Recognized: Struggle for Indigenous Rights, Land, and Acknowledgement