Ethnography of Owens Valley Ethnography of Owens Valley Owens Valley was and still is home of the Owens Valley Paiute. Native American groups. In short, they are unique.
Many people still speak the native tongue.
Other languages include Central Numic or Shoshone and Southern Numic or Ute. You can just make out the California coast in the lower left corner and the Arizona-New Mexico border in the lower right Compare above with the number of languages spoken in California, and you can see that there was not much linguistic diversity in the Great Basin. While over 23 languages were spoken in California, only 3 were spoken in the Great Basin. Steward, in the late 1920's and 1930's, asked older Paiutes about how life used to be prior to the coming of the white man. Rock art such as the mountain sheep depicted to the left and right can be found over much of the valley.