Lake of the Dead

    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.

    Photo Credit

     
    "Zuni Salt Lake, Catron County, New Mexico," photograph by unknwon. Colorado College.

    Term Type
    Manuscript Occurrences
    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.