Margaret Hangan was born and raised in the Inland Empire of Southern California. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA in 1989. From there, she worked as a seasonal archaeologist until entering a graduate program at California State University, Bakersfield in 1996. Margaret started working as a graduate Student Intern with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1998. She completed her M.A. Thesis in 2003 and became the Archaeologist for the El Centro Field Office of the BLM. In 2004, she was hired as the Forest Archaeologist and Tribal Relations Specialist for the Cleveland National Forest in San Diego, then transferred to the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona in 2007 and worked as the Forest Archaeologist for 15 years. In 2021, Margaret accepted a position as the Large Project Archaeologist at the Tonto National Forest. Margaret currently serves as the Chair of the Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Williams and the Chair of the Naco Heritage Alliance Board for Historic Camp Naco, a Buffalo Soldier encampment located south of Bisbee, Arizona. She is also a member of the Arizona State Historic Sites Review Board. Margaret’s research interests include African American History of the West with an emphasis on Arizona and the Arizona Historic Sheep Industry.