Lourdes Pereira, is Hia-Ced O’odham (He-a-ched Aw-Aw-Thumb) and Yoeme (Yo-em-a) and a citizen of the Tohono O’odham (Thaw-nah Aw-Aw-Thumb) Nation coming from the San Lucy district. Lourdes is a senior at Arizona State University and will be graduating in 2023. She is majoring in American Indian Studies and minoring in Justice Studies. She works for Labriola National American Indian Datacenter at ASU and is a research assistant for Trevor Reed, an Associate Professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law specializing in Indigenous Intellectual Property Law. In addition, Lourdes promotes contemporary and traditional Indigenous expression through her modeling initiatives. She is very passionate about empowering, and advocating for Indigenous communities, as well as protecting Indigenous community memory.
Lourdes was the former Miss Indigenous ASU 2020-2022 and, currently, is the Hia-Ced Hemijkam LLC Archivist. In 2019, Lourdes implemented a policy within the Tucson Unified School District that allowed Native American Students the right to wear their regalia on graduation, which became implemented into Pima Community College's dress code for graduation and now a part of State legislation that became in effect in 2021.
S-ke:g Tas, A:ñi ‘añ ‘ab ce:gig Lourdes Pereira, A:ñi vood Hia-Ced O’odham c Yoeme. A:ñi ‘añ ‘o Si:lmek Amjed Si:lmek cuk-son cuk, haba ki: Skegeekdam. A:ñi ñ-maṣcam al cekṣañ kekel Ha-maṣcamakud.
