Zuni Day, Sweeping the Clods Away

The Zuni Pueblo tribe is joining forces with the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, and other enviro groups to fight a utility's plans to strip-mine coal from 18,000 acres of state, federal, and private land in western New Mexico. The coalition says the mining would draw water from the Zuni Salt Lake, where the tribe extracts salt for religious purposes, as well as disturb human burial grounds and other religious sites. The utility, the Salt River Project, has yet to receive the go-ahead from the feds for the project.