A Patch of Ponderosa Pine - Public Domain image, National Parks Gallery

The Zuni are Native American Pueblo peoples native to the Zuni River valley, New Mexico. The Zuni are a Federally recognized tribe and most live in the Pueblo of Zuni on the Zuni River, a tributary of the Little Colorado River, in western New Mexico, United States. The Pueblo of Zuni is 55 km south of Gallup, New Mexico. Before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Zuni lived in six villages. After the revolt, until 1692, they took refuge in a defensible position atop Dowa Yalanne, a steep mesa 5 km (3.1 miles) southeast of the present Pueblo of Zuni; After the establishment of peace and the return of the Spanish, the Zuni relocated to their present location, returning to the mesa top only briefly in 1703. The Zuni Reservation was created by the United States federal government in 1877, and enlarged by a second Executive order in 1883. During the early 2000s, the Zuni opposed the development of a coal mine near the Zuni Salt Lake, a site sacred to the Zuni and under Zuni control. The plan to build it was abandoned in 2003 after several lawsuits.