Bishop Paiute Tribe

A nation today

View up Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View, with El Capitan on the left, Bridalveil Fall on the right, and Half Dome at the back.
David Iliff (Diliff), Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Background

The Bishop Paiute Tribe's FAQ page opens with Manahüü, and records that Nüümü is often translated as people and is what some use to refer to themselves as Paiute people. The present-day reservation is 875 acres directly west of Bishop, California, dated by the page to a 1941 trade in which 2,913.5 acres of former Paiute reservation land were exchanged for 1,391.48 acres owned by the City of Los Angeles, then divided between the Bishop, Big Pine and Lone Pine reservations. The Tribe counts about 2,000 members, which the page calls the fifth largest tribe in California, and is governed by a Tribal Council of five elected members serving four-year terms, elected by a General Council made up of its eligible voting members. Tribal offices are at 50 Tu Su Lane in Bishop. The same page sets out a traditional homeland of more than two million acres of the Eastern Sierra and Great Basin between Bridgeport and Ridgecrest, into the White and Inyo Mountains, with seasonal trade routes crossing the Sierra Nevada. It names the tonis, houses of tule reed standing in the valley, and the wagoni, houses of conifer up in the mountains.

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Visit and learn

Bishop Paiute Tribe's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

View up Yosemite Valley from Tunnel View, with El Capitan on the left, Bridalveil Fall on the right, and Half Dome at the back.Yosemite National Park

The Bishop Paiute Tribe's own account puts its traditional homelands across more than two million acres of the Eastern Sierra and Great Basin, and says seasonal trade routes crossed the Sierra between communities on either side. The tribe's reservation is 875 acres and lies directly west of Bishop, California. Source

Affiliations

  • Owens Valley Indian Water Commission

    A three-tribe commission whose member tribes are the Bishop, Big Pine and Lone Pine Tribes, with a six-member board of two from each member Tribe and regular meetings every two months. Its stated mission includes assisting Tribes with securing water rights settlements that include land acquisition, promoting Indigenous farming and ranching, and preserving and restoring land and habitat in the Owens Valley and Eastern Sierra.

    https://www.oviwc.org/

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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