Bishop

Bishop is where the Eastern Sierra does its errands: gear shops, a hospital, real groceries, fuel that is not a rip-off, and a bakery running since 1938 that draws a line out the door for a loaf of sheepherder bread. The town sits at 4,150 feet with the Sierra crest on one side and the White Mountains on the other, which makes it the practical base for most of what people come to this valley to do.

It is also the seat of the Bishop Paiute Tribe, the Nüümü, whose name for themselves means the original people. The arithmetic of their reservation says most of what needs saying about the valley. In 1912 the federal government set aside more than 67,000 acres in Owens Valley for the Nüümü. In 1932 President Hoover revoked it to protect Los Angeles water. In 1937 Congress authorized a trade: the tribes gave up 2,913 acres of federally held land for 1,391 acres owned by the city, split three ways among Bishop, Big Pine, and Lone Pine. The city kept the water rights. The Bishop reservation today is 875 acres, and the tribe is the fifth largest in California with one of the smallest land bases in it.

The Owens Valley Paiute-Shoshone Cultural Center in town tells that history from the Nüümü side, which is the version worth hearing. From here the road to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest climbs east into the Whites.