What You Can Do
Give $11 to help support the 11 Most Endangered Places.
11 Most Endangered
Zuni Salt Lake and Sanctuary Zone
Year Listed: 2003
Location: , New Mexico
Current Status: Endangered
Threat: Poor Public Policy, Road Construction
Latest News
The preservation of this 11 Most site was supported by Save America's Treasures, a program that is facing elimination in the proposed federal budget. Join our campaign to save this component of preservation funding, which has restored 1,100 structures and collections and created 16,000 jobs coast to coast.
Vast landscape of the Zuni Salt Lake and Sanctuary Zone, Catron and Cibola Counties, New Mexico. The Zuni Salt Lake was on the 2003 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Credit: National Trust for Historic Preservation
Significance
Located in a remote region of western New Mexico, Zuni Salt Lake and the surrounding area (known as the Sanctuary Zone) are considered sacred ground by no less than six Native American tribes. The lake is particularly significant to members of the Zuni Tribe, who believe that it gives life to Ma'l Oyattsik'I, Salt Woman, one of the tribe's central deities, and has long been an important source of salt for domestic and ceremonial use. In recognition of the sites' significance, the National Park Service listed Zuni Salt Like on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
Updates
Originally threatened in 2003 by a proposed coal mine that would have drawn water from the aquifer underlying the lake, Zuni Salt Lake received a reprieve when the mine company withdrew its application and relinquished its interests in the area. That same year, another threat arose when the Bureau of Land Management issued oil and gas leases across thousands of acres in the Sanctuary Zone. The National Trust challenged the leases and, in 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals overturned the leasing decision, ruling that BLM had failed to "conduct[] a meaningful review of cultural resources issues before the lease sale. . . ."
More recently, the National Trust provided BLM with detailed comments on a proposed resource management plan for the 1.3 million-acre Socorro Field Office, which includes the Zuni Salt Lake and Sanctuary Zone. In these comments, the National Trust recommended that BLM designate the entire Sanctuary Zone as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), a designation that would have prohibited oil and gas leasing and restricted groundwater pumping in the area. Although BLM ultimately decided to designate an estimated one-fourth of the Sanctuary Zone as an ACEC, it did agree to develop a Memorandum of Understanding with the Zuni and other tribes that establish a consultation process for how BLM will consult actions proposed within the ACEC.
Read More:
Share your memories of this endangered place
