Where Water Flows

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.

This book critically reassesses the famous water conflicts over the Los Angeles Aqueduct, highlighting their enduring impacts on the Indigenous peoples and environment of Payahuunadü—Nüümü for "the place where water flows," encompassing the Owens and Mono Basins in eastern California. Sophia L. Borgias weaves archival and ethnographic research together with firsthand perspectives from Nüümü water protectors to trace connections between histories of Indigenous dispossession and the ongoing fight for water justice, demonstrating how conflicts over the Los Angeles Aqueduct are fundamentally struggles over settler colonialism—as much about land, sovereignty, and decision-making power as they are about water. Centering stories that have been eclipsed by dominant rancher-versus-city narratives of the aqueduct, Where Water Flows shows how the Nüümü have consistently resisted displacement, advocated for Indigenous land and water rights, sought to recenter care and reciprocity in water governance, and now lead a growing movement for change.