Zuni Salt Lake

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Zuni Salt Lake
Location	New Mexico, USA
Lake type	maar
Primary outflows	evaporation

Zuni Salt Lake (also Zuñi Salt Lake and Fence Lake), located about 60 miles south of the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, is a rare, high desert lake, and a classic maar. It is extremely shallow, with the depth only to four feet in the wet season. During the dry season, much of the water evaporates leaving behind saltflats.

For centuries, the pueblo tribes of the Southwest, including the Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, Hopi and Taos pueblos, have made annual pilgrimages to Zuni Salt Lake to harvest salt, for both culinary and ceremonial purposes. Ancient roadways radiate out from the lake to the various pueblos and ancient pueblo sites such as Chaco. The lake itself is considered sacred, home the Salt Mother deity, who the Zuñi call Ma'l Oyattsik'i.

The Zuni Salt Lake was not part of the Zuni reservation originally recognized by the U.S. government, but the U.S. returned the lake itself, and 5,000 acres (20 km²) surrounding it, to Zuni control in 1985.

There was a proposal (1994-2003) to develop a coal mine near the Zuni Salt Lake.^[1] It would have involved extraction of water from the aquifer below the lake as well as construction between the lake and the Pueblo of Zuñi. ^{[2] [3]} The proposal was withdrawn after several lawsuits.

[edit] References

1. ^ LaDuke, Winona (2002) "The Salt Woman and the Coal Mine" Sierra Magazine
2. ^ Zuni Salt Lake Earth Island Institute (2004)
3. ^ Testimony of Malcolm B. Bowekaty, Governor of the Zuni Tribe before the United States Senate, Committee on Indian Affairs, July 17, 2002, Washington, D.C.