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Show the Apache County Attorney for advice and County Attorney Udall told the sheriff that in his opinion the Zunis had the right by prescriptive easement to make the trip-they had been doing it since the beginning of time. The pilgrimage is common knowledge in Apache County. 250 County Attorney Stephen G. Udall Mr. Udall reported that the Zunis have used this route for centuries and that this use is common knowledge in Apache County. Mr. Udall's grandfather was a good friend of the Governor of Zuni around the turn of the century. In fact, Mr. Udall said his grandfather, E. I. Whiting, who owned several sections along the Little Colorado, may have owned the area encompassing the Zunis' sacred lake-then called Roger's Lake. The site of the former lake is now on the Ellsworth property. Mr. Udall said that he thought it dried up when work with earth-moving equipment was done in the area, although he thought it may have dried up part of the year in the past anyway. The turn-of-the-century Governor of Zuni was well-educated, said Mr. Udall, better educated than was his grandfather, probably receiving his education at one of the better universities. In the period before Arizona statehood (1912) the Zuni governor told Mr. Udall's grandfather that if he was ever out in his wagon and was going across the lake bed when it was dry, "if you turn into a frog, don't turn back or you'll stay a frog. Keep going and you'll turn back to a man on the other side." Steve Udall was told that story when he was 12 or 14 years old. 250. Lee, Sheriff Arthur Interview (telephone) by E. Richard Hart June 25, 1986, Saint Johns, Arizona (Lee) and Albuquerque, New Mexico (Hart). - 179 - |
