Damon Akins received his B.A. in American History from Oklahoma City University and his M.A. in Latin American Studies, with an emphasis in history and literature from UCLA. He is now ABD and finishing a dissertation on the the environmental and legal context of Indian political activism in southern California between 1850 and 1930. He has received dissertation research grants from the American Philosophical Society, the Historical Society of Southern California, the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and Phi Alpha Theta. Additionally, he has presented papers at the Annual Meeting of the Western History Association and the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. Since 2007, he has been a member of the History department at Guilford College, in Greensboro, NC where he teaches courses on Native Americans, Environmental History and the History of the American West.