Article
According to the Zuni migration story, as the Zuni migrated in search of the Middle Place, conceptually understood to be the center of the world and what today is known as Halona:Itiwana, or the Zuni Pueblo, the people split into several groups. One group followed the Little Colorado River south, and near to where it joins the Zuni River running west out of what today is New Mexico, they found the Lake of the Dead, or in Zuni Koluwala:wa. Underneath its waters lay a village where the Zuni kachina, or ancestor spirits, live. The Zuni believe that after they die, they return to the lake to join their ancestors.
Kothluwalawa is also referred to as the Dance Hall of the Dead.
"Zuni Salt Lake, Catron County, New Mexico," photograph by unknwon. Colorado College.
Manuscripts
References
Ball, Martin 2005 Kachina and Clown Societies. The American Mosaic: The American Indian Experience. http://americanindian2.abc-clio.com/, accessed January 6, 2015.
Bunzel, Ruth L. 1992 Zuni Ceremonialism. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Cushing, Frank Hamilton 1988 The Mythic World of the Zuni. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Tedlock, Barbara 1992 The Beautiful and the Dangerous: Dialogues with the Zuni Indians. New York: Penguin Books.