Despite state and federal officials' bluster about righting the wrongs done to the tribes with the desecration, their forefathers' bones remain tangled in bureaucracy, exposed to looters and erosion as winter is set to arrive.
Zuni leaders believe the spirits of the unearthed are now troubled and will continue to be until they are repatriated with "Mother Earth."
Octavius Seowtewa (left) and Cornell Tsalate are among the Zuni tribe's high-ranking religious leaders who practice traditional medicine and spiritual ceremonies.
Zuni Governor Arlen Quetawki handles tribal business as he talks about his frustration with government officials after the desecration of their ancestors' graves.
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Says Cornell Tsalate, a medicine man and high-ranking member of the tribe's religious hierarchy, "In our way, there are still connections to our ancestors who lived [in Amity Pueblo]. These individuals are not resting in peace."
It's a miracle that the Zuni people weren't extinguished from the Southwestern landscape, says Octavius Seowtewa, leader of the Galaxy Fraternity, one of the tribe's secret medicine societies.
"The first Spanish explorers came here and really put the Zuni in a situation where we almost lost our culture," he says. "Our religious ceremonies and practices were impeded by . . . the invaders. Some of our sacred ceremonies had to go underground to protect what we had."
About 7,000 tribal members live in Pueblo of Zuni, 35 miles south of Gallup, New Mexico. It's a community of peaceful, hardworking people. The landscape contains modest homes interspersed with others worn badly by time and poverty. There are only a few eateries, including one pizzeria, in town, as well as retail shops that feature the authentic work of Indian artists — paintings, stone carvings, woven baskets, bead work, and silver and turquoise jewelry. The surrounding desert landscape is dotted by sacred, colorful mesas.
Tribal leaders and various historical accounts suggest that the Zuni were the first native people visited by the Spaniards in 1539. The newcomers forced the Indians to supply them with "corn, women, and labor and [were] punished harshly for practicing their religion," according to the Native American Encyclopedia by Barry M. Pritzker.
The Zuni are, after thousands of years, still one of the most traditional of the pueblo tribes. They have maintained the integrity of their unique and isolated language — save for a few words borrowed from other tribes — for at least 7,000 years. And their spiritual and religious practices, which involve kachina spirits, are a way of life.
None of the outsiders who settled on their land could stymie the "Zuni Way," a belief system that for centuries has been anchored to the sanctity of ancestors.
"What's happened [at Amity Pueblo] is very detrimental for the tribe, from a cultural perspective, because directly north of where this desecration occurred, linked through the Little Colorado River, is a place we know as Zuni Heaven," Arden Kucate says. "It's a very sacred place. When we come to our end-of-life path, that's where we go. Our ancestors have been connected to it since time immemorial."
Zuni religious leaders make a four-day, 60-mile trek on foot or horseback every four years to Zuni Heaven. Congregants follow, but only to a point. No one but those with "high authority" may go up into the mountain.
Prayers and songs are offered at this "gateway of spirituality" to achieve balance with the Earth — they pray for rain, plentiful harvests, long lives, and prosperity. And not just for the Zuni, but for the entire world, Kucate says.
The spirits, too, are invited.
When a member of the Zuni dies, the body remains at home for a day and is washed and dressed by female relatives. When the body is buried, clothes, blankets, and other items are interred with it for the afterlife journey.
The spirit remains in the home for four days before blowing out an open door and finding an eternal home in one of several places, including Zuni Heaven.
"Once the individual is in the ground, prayers are said. And when they dig a grave, it's not just a grave — it's their house for life, the beyond life," Kucate says. "If the grave is disturbed, it means the individual is disturbed from where he or she was sent to meet with . . . ancestors."
Such disruptions can lead to paranormal sightings, the return of spirits, and unexplained phenomena, tribal members say. And the Zuni have no prayers for reburying someone excavated from the ground.
"When things like this happen," Kucate says, "it really hurts us because no one even asked [what we thought] until after they've done the damage. It's leaving us natives out of our own aboriginal lands."
That sentiment is all too common among Indian tribes across the country. Like most native Americans, the Zuni tried to defend their land, along with their traditional ways. They participated in the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, driving the Spanish settlers out of the region. But facing raids from surrounding Apache, Hopi, and Navajo, they joined forces with the Spanish militia, Mexican troops, and, later, the U.S. Army.
Despite alliances with the United States in battle, the Zuni lost most of their tribal lands to American colonization. When the United States established official boundaries of the Zuni reservation in 1877, it encompassed less than 3 percent of the 15 million acres of the tribe's aboriginal lands.
In 1978, Congress passed a law allowing the Zuni to sue the federal government for taking tribal land without compensation. The Zuni filed several claims, and it wasn't until 1990 that President George H.W. Bush signed a law to settle the claims for $25 million.
