California’s Nuumu People Claim LA Stole Their Water, Now They’re Fighting for Its Return

When Noah Williams was about a year old, his parents took him on a fateful drive through the endless desert sagebrush of the Owens Valley — which the Nüümü call Payahuunadü — in California’s Eastern Sierra. Noah was strapped into his car seat behind his mother, Teri Red Owl, and his father, Harry Williams, a Nüümü tribal elder with a sharp sense of humor who loved a teachable moment.