The two towns cut the surrounding pinyon pine forest for firewood depriving the Kutzadika'a of an important seasonal food source in the form of pinyon nuts. Both towns heavily cut the surrounding pinyon pine forests in the Bodie Hills, the primary source of pinyon nuts for the Kutzadika'a people . Violent conflict between Kutzadika'a and the European American settlers was rare to non-existent, but the native people were forced to occupy marginal land that they could no longer effectively hunt or gather food from. In time the Kutzadika'a had no choice but to work on surrounding ranches since they could no longer gather food reliably. Families moved to Mono Basin ranches and farms and worked for the new landowners in order to survive on the very land that once was theirs.
Today there are only a handful of Kutzadika'a descendents living in the Mono Basin.
Mono Lake Committee .