Bishop hosts first ever Water Justice Summit

Citizens, tribes take on water scarcity, water justice and more

Earlier this month, a group of local residents and other citizens from all across the Great Basin whose focus is on water issues gathered for the first ever Great Basin Water Justice Summit, held in the city of Bishop. Their focus was on equitable access to dwindling water sources in the Great Basin and, on protecting local ecosystems which depend on that water.

This bringing together of communities which do not always communicate, attendees said, was central to the purpose of this first annual Water Justice Summit. Some of these issues included addressing ongoing local water conflicts with the City of Los Angeles, the role of tribal nations in protecting water, how to build a coalition to fight for future generations and more.

The Water Justice Summit was organized by the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission and the Great Basin Water Network.

The first day of the summit held at the White Mountain Research Center, both in person and by Zoom, with a focus on “the defeat of the Las Vegas pipeline project in Nevada and the ongoing water conflicts with Los Angeles in the Owens and Mono basins” as well as “lightning talks about a range of other water issues emerging across the Great Basin.”

In the first panel, Fighting for Water Justice in Payahuunadü (this is the name for the Owens Valley area given by local tribes), panelists spoke about the different ways that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s “system of water extraction and export” has upended cultural, social, political, and environmental issues, according to Sophia Borges, Assistant Professor at Boise State University, who helped organize the event and then moderated it.

Representing the diverse kinds of coalitions that are forming around water justice in the Western United States, the panel included Teri Red Owl, Executive Director of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commis

sion, Lynn Bolton, chair of the Range of Light group of the Sierra club, Noah Williams, water coordinator for the Big Pine Paiute Tribe, Geoff Mcquilkin, Executive Director of the Mono Lake Committee, and Wendy Schneider, Executive Director of Friends of the Inyo and Coordinator for the Keep Long Valley Green Coalition.

Here are some of the main topics addressed by the panel:

What are the impacts of water extraction on Indigenous communities?

Teri Red Owl of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission addressed the unique and deep impact that Los Angeles’ water extraction has made on Indigenous communities, but how they are also often times left out of, or relegated to the past, in those discussions. “It touches me, it hurts me, in my soul,” she said, speaking about how LADWP has changed the land by taking water. The loss of water has led to a loss of cultural identity, as well as health and wellbeing — a forced change in cultural beliefs that has created historical trauma still impacting Indigenous communities today, she said.

At the same time, Red Owl said, that identity and culture is still certainly alive, and many are working to further reconnect with it. “When (LADWP) came in, we were still here, and we’re going to continue to be here,” she said. The work and process of reclaiming water, she said, is also the work and process of reclaiming identity, culture, and racial equity “here in Payahuunadü.”

Noah Williams, water coordinator for the Big Pine Paiute tribe, gave updates on the current state of water extraction, specifically groundwater pumping in Payahuunadü, and spoke about the role that Native nations play in fighting this extraction and finding solutions to protect future generations. He showed slides comparing photos from the 1940s and 1950s with photos from the modern day in the same areas. All showed a large, if not complete, decrease in vegetation. “You see acres of dark vegetation that simply does not exist anymore,” he described of one photo. Williams addressed the cultural differences in perception of water behind this extraction.

LADWP views water as a commodity or resource rather than a necessary part of human life that we also have responsibility to protect, he said. And because of this today, “Our reservation is dry,” he said. “Big Pine, time and time again, is left dry.” He described windy days where large amounts of dust blow around, harming the air quality, and the changes in the types of plants that kids in Big Pine now grow up with. “This is what they have to live through on a daily basis,” he said.

Looking to the future, Williams said, “I believe that Native nations have always been a leading voice in environmental issues, not only in Payahuunadü, but across the nation.”

Thus, it will be important to continue learning “how we can apply our TEK (traditional ecological knowledge) to our current systems, how we as Indigenous people lead these voices and lead these movements to engage our land, water, and overall, the land’s spirit,” he said. “I see us