Dana Rae EchoHawk is an adjunct professor of history at University of Colorado Denver and Metropolitan College of Denver. Her work on the San Luis Valley includes research in Costilla, Conejos, and adjacent Huerfano Counties for properties now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Her master’s thesis is a study of Mormon settlers who arrived in the Valley in 1876. During 2005, at the request of the San Luis Museum and Cultural Center, she photographed daily traditions in Costilla County that were exhibited in 2017 at the Western History Art Gallery, Denver Public Library.