Damon B. Akins grew up in Oklahoma, but soon found himself in California where he attended UCLA and taught high school in the San Fernando Valley. He later returned to Oklahoma to pursue a PhD in Native American/California history at the University of Oklahoma. He is currently a Professor of History at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he teaches classes on Native America, California, and the American West. He has been awarded fellowships at the Huntington Library, including the Ray Allen Billington Fellowship/Visiting Professorship shared with Occidental College in Los Angeles during the 2024-2025 academic year. He is the coauthor of We Are the Land: A History of Native California.