Former Zuni Councilman Milo Owaleon, 89, who served in the 1970s, last Saturday encouraged the Zuni Tribal Council to have vision and never stop fighting to protect Zuni Salt Lake because it means the survival of the next generation and every generation after them.
By Marley Shebala
The Navajo Times
ZUNI, N.M. - How do people who speak a different language and have a different understanding of what's sacred communicate?
That was the underlying question by about 300 people who came from across the Southwest to testify at "The People's Hearing on Zuni Salt Lake" on Saturday.
Zuni spiritual leaders and elders, some of whom are elected officials, repeated what they said in July 1996: The Zuni Salt Lake is sacred to the people of Zuni, Acoma, Apache, Hopi, Laguna, Navajo and numerous other tribes and will never be for sale.
The Salt River Project in 1996 asked for and received a mining permit from the New Mexico Minerals Division to construct the Fence Lake Mine near Grants, N.M., to strip-mine coal. The coal would be transported over a 45-mile railroad to its Coronado Generating Station in St. Johns, Ariz.
U.S. Interior Secretary Gail Norton approved a federal permit for SRP's Life of Mine Plan with significant conditions on May 31, 2002.
One of the conditions prohibits the mine's use of the Dakota aquifer. Another condition requires SRP, after consultation with the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and public comment by Zuni, to design and conduct a long-term pump test of the Atarque Aquifer.
U.S. senators Peter Domenici, R-N.M., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Representatives Steven Pearce, R-N.M., and Tom Udall, D-N.M., in a July 1 letter to the Interior and BIA reminded them of the conditions and the federal government's right to modify or cancel SRP's plan to protect cultural resources and the Zuni Salt Lake.
The congressmen supported Zuni's request to temporarily suspend SRP's mining activities.
Zuni Pueblo and a growing number of other tribes oppose SRP's proposed use of the two aquifers, the Dakota and Atarque, to mine about 80 million tons of coal for 50 years, starting in 2005.
The Dakota and Atarque feed the Zuni Salt Lake.
Zuni Salt Lake Coalition leader Cal Seciwa said hydrologic studies by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Indian Affairs found that groundwater pumping from the mine will endanger the Salt Lake.
The Coronado power station produces electricity for about 200,000 of SRP's 780,000 customers in the south Arizona valley, which includes Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale.
The coal from the proposed 18,000-acre mine, which covers federal, state and private land that SRP bought in 1995, would replace the coal from the Pittsburg and Midway McKinley Mine near Window Rock, which is expected to close in 2005.
The Arizona utility company expects to provide 200 jobs and $130 million in taxes and royalties to New Mexico from its Fence Lake Mine.
"This (Zuni Salt Lake) is where our mother is resting," said Thelma Sheche, who spoke in Zuni at Saturday's meeting. "This (mine) will drive her away."
According to traditional Zuni history, Salt Mother (Ma'lokyattsik'i) lived in a spring in Black Rock, near the present day Zuni village of Halona (Idiwan'a), where she provided salt to the people (A:shiwi) for many years.
But then A:shiwi started to abuse and disrespect Ma'lokyattsik'i. They gathered the salt without leaving the proper prayer offerings and also wasted the salt.
So Ma'lokyattsik'i left Zuni and went south, leaving a path of barren ground to show the way to her new home, Ma'k'yayanne (Salt Lake), which is about 60 miles south of Zuni Pueblo.
When A;shiwi found Ma'lokyattsik'i, they begged her to return but she refused and warned them that if they ever disrespected her again, she would never return.
And so to this day, the people prepare prayer sticks and other sacred offerings in exchange for the salt, which simply cannot be replaced with commercial salt.
Laguna Pueblo Gov. Roland E. Johnson said that Salt Woman also lived with the Laguna people at one time.
"Our story is that Salt Woman moved because she was disturbed," said Johnson.
He said Laguna Pueblo will always support Zuni's battle to protect the Zuni Salt Lake, one of the most sacred sites.
Johnson added that the Laguna people fully understand the negative impacts of mining activities on traditional shrines after experiencing the creation of the world's largest open pit uranium mine on their land.
Sheche, like 2002-2003 Miss Zuni Elanda Luna-Dewa, had tears in her eyes, as she talked about how boys must make a pilgrimage to the Salt Lake to learn the prayers to continue the traditional Zuni ceremonies.
Seciwa announced earlier to the crowd that SRP was invited to also testify but when he asked if they were present, there was no response.
"It's heartless of them not to be here and listen," said Luna-Dewa.
The Navajo Times left messages for SRP at the headquarters in Phoenix on Tuesday but by press time on Wednesday, SRP had not responded.
Vietnam veterans William "Shorty" Lewis, 59, who served with the Army's First Air Calvary in 1966-67, and Gabriel Yuselew, 53, who served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division in 1970-71, called on all veterans to help them protect the Zuni Salt Lake.
They said SRP's mining activities already unearthed human remains around the Zuni Salt Lake. SRP should go to Arlington Cemetery and dig up a veteran because that's what they've already done, they said.
Acoma Second Lt. Gov. Jason Johnson said, "I also am a kiva father and salt is sacred to us."
The Zuni people must continue the fight to protect the Zuni Salt Lake because if mining should occur, the land will never be the same even if it is reclaimed, said Johnson.
He pledged to keep returning to Congress to testify on behalf of the Zuni Salt Lake, which he has done numerous times.