Series of San Joaquin Valley water talks kick off Wednesday in Visalia

The Pa’ashi Speaker Series focusing on water in the San Joaquin Valley kicks off Wednesday, March 25, at 5:30 p.m. with a talk by Tachi Yokut Tribe cultural liaison Kenny Barrios.

The talk will take place in the Ponderosa Hall at College of the Sequoias, 915 S.Mooney Blvd. in Visalia. An outdoor reception will follow each lecture. The lectures are put on jointly by the Cultural and Historical Awareness Program (CHAP) at College of the Sequoias and the Alta Peak chapter of the California Native Plant Society. 

The series is building off of last year’s lectures, which explored the past, present and potential future of Tulare Lake, called Pa’ashi by indigenous tribes. 

This year, the free series is titled “Water Influencers Across California,” and will feature Barrios, attorney Adam Keats and Dr. Ron Goode, chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe. 

“Last year’s series was a big success, and we found that there was a real desire and need for these conversations,” organizer Vivian Underhill wrote in an email. “This year, we expanded from an exclusive focus on Pa’ashi/Tulare Lake to thinking more broadly about what we think of as ‘water influencers’ and how their work might relate or further inform our conversations from last year about Pa’ashi.”

According to press materials, this series will focus on contemporary water justice work across California. Each speaker will share their vision for the future of waterways and how their work impacts that future to benefit people and nature.

The schedule includes: 

• March 25, 2026: Kenny Barrios, Cultural Liaison for the Tachi Yokut Tribe

Kenny Barrios works as a cultural liaison in the Cultural Department of the Tachi Yokuts Tribe. He teaches Tachi youth traditional dances, songs, and language for the tribe. He also serves on the CalNAGPRA (Native American Graves Protection Act and Repatriation Act) committee at Fresno State, and is on the Indian Education Committee with Lemoore Unified School District. He is working on a Tachi dictionary with the Tachi Culture Committee.

• April 15, 2026: Adam Keats, lawyer with Bring Back the Kern

Adam Keats has been practicing public interest environmental law for more than 25 years, currently focusing on water law and river restoration work. He formerly served as Senior Counsel and Urban Wildlands Program Director at the Center for Biological Diversity and Senior Attorney at the Center for Food Safety. He was recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer from 2022 through 2025, and was awarded a Delta Advocate Award by Restore the Delta in 2019. He is a 1997 graduate of King Hall, UC Davis School of Law. 

• April 22, 2026: Dr. Ron Goode, Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe

The Honorable Ron W. Goode is the Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe. He is a retired ethnic studies professor and the author of Cultural Traditions Endangered (1992). He is also the co-founder of the California State Tribal Water Summit. In 2017-2018 Ron was the Coordinating Lead Author for the Tribal Indigenous Communities Climate Change Assessment.