Native America Calling: Tribes fight for solutions to dwindling clean water sources

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Native America Calling: Tribes fight for solutions to dwindling clean water sources

Thursday, December 11, 2025

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Tribes fight for solutions to dwindling clean water sources

The Paiute and Shoshone tribes in California’s Owens Valley are facing a shortage of water — an issue that spans decades, but is now exacerbated by climate change.

The city of Los Angeles, more than 200 miles away, is guzzling one-third of the groundwater in the region. The diversion of water from the valley began in 1913 — and within a decade, Owens Lake was drained dry.

Owens Lake is a dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. Owens held significant water until 1913, when much of the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct further sourth, causing the lake to run dry by 1926. A very small percentage of the flows have returned in recent years. Photo: Ken Lund

The land in Owens Valley was once lush with springs and streams. It is now a parched landscape that hinders tribal access to culture and economic development.

Also, hear about how a proposed weakening of federal protections for the majority of the country’s wetlands could affect tribes. Tribes manage millions of acres of wetlands.

The Trump administration seeks to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority on how it regulates pollution under the Clean Water Act. Scaling back those protections has potential consequences for much of the country’s sources of clean drinking water.

Guests on Native America Calling

Daniel Cordalis (Diné), staff attorney with Native American Rights Fund and lead for the Tribal Water Institute

Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute), executive director of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, representing the Bishop Paiute Tribe, the Big Pine Paiute Tribe and the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe