Western Times and Water Wars

By John Walton

This tedious tome consists of 379 pages of very little history, but plenty of pages social and political opinions, adorned by esoteric words such as “picaresque” and “recusancy”.  The former relates to a form of prose fiction, originally developed in Spain and the latter a term that originally described a Roman Catholic who refused to attend the services of the Church of England.  The author’s purpose is to relate the history of the struggle for water rights in the Owens Valley.

Originally settled by members of the Paiute Indian tribe, the Owens Valley attracted settlers from other parts of the U.S. to its beauty and its bounty.  Of course, the American settlers overwhelmed the Native Americans who were relegated to working as farm hands.  The fate of the Owens Valley was sealed by the action of California’s constitutional convention, which defined California’s eastern boundary to include the leeward side of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Residents were “hoodwinked” by the growing city of Los Angeles, which acquired the water rights in the Valley and diverted the water to Los Angeles, thereby devastating the Valley.

The story is simple and helps the Homestead Museum docent understand how Los Angeles became such a large city by the 1920’s.  The author uses most the book to explain how this occurred, using conventional Marxist, class-warfare dialectics, quoting Herbert Marcuse, noted Marxist professor and mentor of radical Angela Davis, whose firearms were used to murder a California judge.

There is plenty to write about regarding the history of water in California.  There are good guys and bad guys, but the fact remains that when the state, or society, needs a resource, it gets it.  That is how the interstate system was built and how the U.S. intends to construct a high-speed rail system.  No displaced person believes they receive fair compensation.  As the years go by, we have developed more stringent requirements for any construction.

The U.S. came into possession of vast amounts of land in the 1800’s and set about distributing that land to its citizens.  Congress did not always have the best intentions nor make the wisest decisions.  Corporations assisted (to great profit) in this endeavor and we are the beneficiaries.