| OCR Text |
Show 95 dams were constructed in the shallow drainage of the Rio Nutria to back water out of the channel into the ditch delivery system. The river was shallow enough that logs could be thrown in it to back water into irrigation ditches. One Nutria farmer described building the small reservoirs that were used to impound water, ... early in the spring we build a reservoir up close, sometimes we have a reservoir up there ... snow melts, and it washed out, and we rebuild it again. And we used it when we catch all that water from the springs and things. Till when we need that water, when we have to irrigate then, that the way we used to do it. The same farmer recalls that that this system used to provide enough water for everyone to irrigate their crops at Nutria. Other Nutria farmers recalled another type of dam constructed by the Zunis at Nutria around 1918 to impound more 132 water for irrigation. 133 This was a crib-log and earthen fill structure downstream from the present Nutria Diversion Dam. As •K A -4- 1 3 4 one man described it, And they used to line the dam with ... boards ... And then if that way, if the dam breached, they would always have the board ... so even if this might have been filled by sand, they could always dig it out. 1 3 2 Tom Walker Idiaque, Interview by T.J. Ferguson, Zuni Pueblo, July 26, 1984, pp. 6, 11. 1 3 3 Scotty Kaskalla and Patterson Peynetsa, Interview by Richard I. Ford, Nutria Area, Zuni Indian Reservation, August 30, 1984, p. 1. 1 3 4 Kathlutah Telsee, Interview by T.J. Ferguson with the assistance of Malcolm Bowekaty, Zuni Pueblo, August 23, 1984, p. 6. |
