California currently faces one of its most severe droughts on record, raising difficult environmental and policy issues. Given these circumstances, it is especially important to learn more about a period and place where conscious engineering of water use allowed a culture to flourish over hundreds of years, the Paiute Tribe of Owens Valley. The Paiute developed a sophisticated system of irrigation canals that made the valley bloom.
For a long time, this history was absent from the popular narrative of the California ‘water wars.’ Through an ongoing community partnership in the ACES class, Researching Water in the West (CW 50/150AC), this fascinating history was presented by Harry Williams, a Paiute tribal member, Berkeley faculty, the Bancroft Curator and a former AC student, Jenna Cavelle, whose lives have been changed by unearthing and exploring this story. Below is the video of the the event.