Larea Lewis

Larea Lewis is a tribal member of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians from Palm Springs, CA. Her interests are in protecting and preserving cultural resources and landscapes, as well as learning and revitalizing the tribe’s cultural heritage. Currently, she serves as Chairwoman of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board (HPAB) created by her tribe’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer to address cultural issues that are brought up in land development projects and national parks. She is pursuing a PhD in AIS: Federal Indian Law & Policy, has received an MA in Anthropology: Applied Archaeology, and a BA in Flute Performance. For her Master’s Thesis, she focused on Desert Cahuilla oral stories and used ArcGIS to provide a visual tool for cultural resource and landscape study. For her dissertation, she may continue her research on Cahuilla cultural landscapes and focus on traditional plant use or do more research on her tribe's resillience in adapting to state and federal laws during the beginning of the 20th century.