The Zuni (Zuñi) River is a tributary of the Little Colorado River in the southwestern United States. It has its origin in Cibola County, New Mexico, in the Zuñi Mountains at the Continental Divide. The river flows off the western slopes of the Zuñi Mountains in a generally southwesterly direction through the Zuni Indian Reservation to join the Little Colorado River in eastern Arizona. The Zuni River is approximately 90 miles (140 km) long, and has a drainage basin in New Mexico of approximately 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2).[3]
The Zuñi River begins about 4.5 miles east-northeast of Black Rock at the confluence of the Rio Pescado and Rio Nutria. It was dammed at Black Rock in 1908 forming the Black Rock Reservoir.[4][5] The river has a small dam at the Zuni Pueblo.[6] The river is intermittent, drying up during drought periods, and often during most of the winter, except where there are perennial springs that give it surface flow for a short distance.[3]
The Zuni Basin is home to the Moreno Hill Formation where fossils from the later Cretaceous 92 Mya. Fossils include dinosaurs like Zuniceratops and Suskityrannus (Zuni Coelurosaur).[7]
The Zuni River is sacred to the Zuni people. Every four years, a religious pilgrimage is made on the "Barefoot Trail" to Kołuwala:wa, also called "Zuni Heaven", at the confluence of the Zuni River and the Little Colorado.[9]
^ abc"Zuñi River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. February 8, 1980. Archived from the original on 26 June 2014.
^Source elevation derived from Google Earth search using GNIS source coordinates.
^ abOrr, Brennon R. (1987). Water Resources of the Zuni Tribal Lands, McKinley and Cibola Counties, New Mexico. U.S.G.S. Water-supply Paper 2227. Washington, DC: United States Geological Survey. p. 37. OCLC11134685.
^Dodge, William A. (2010). Black Rock: A Zuni Cultural Landscape and the Meaning of Place. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. p. 181–182. ISBN978-1-57806-993-4.
