1931 – Nov 23, Snowstorm, Navajo and Zuni snowbound on mesas south of Gallup NM– 11

–~11 Donovan. “1967 snow crisis met by massive rescue effort.” Navajo Times, Window Rock, 12-12-2011.
— 11 By Nov 28. Roswell Daily Record, NM. “Huge Trucks…Imprisoned Indians.” 11-28-1931, p1.
— 9 By Nov 26. Navajo Natives in pinon nut picking camps snowed in by deep snow.
Breakout of snow storm related deaths by locality:
–4 Atarque area. Evening News-Journal, Clovis, NM. “Storm Imperials 1,300 Indians.” 11-26-1931, 1.
–3 Exposure; family of three Navajos (one child) found in their pinon nut hunting camp.
–1 Exposure; lone Navajo man found in pinon nut hunting camp.
–1 Atarque area, Nov 28. Exposure; body of Mike Brodie, 20, Navajo, found.
–1 Coal Mine canyon area. Exposure; body of Pushana, Zuni Native, found.
–1 Gallup, Nov 23. Electrocution; railroad worker Juan Magrono picks up live wire downed by storm.
–1 Pinedale area, Nov 28. Exposure; body of John Gooder, found frozen.
–5 Zuni Indian agency, south of, Nov 26. Navajo Native Americans “found frozen to death.”

Narrative Information

Donovan: “Last week, the Navajo Times recounted the 1931 effort to rescue as many as 1,000 Navajos and Zunis who were caught in snowstorms south of Gallup. As many as 11 people were believed to have died during that incident.” (Donovan, Bill. “1967 snow crisis met by massive rescue effort.” Navajo Times, Window Rock, 12-12-2011.)

Newspapers at the Time

Nov 23: “AP….Juan Magrono, railroad worker, was killed near Gallup, N.M., when he picked up a high voltage wire snapped by the snow.” (Evening News-Journal, Clovis, NM. “Clovis Section Feels Icy Clutch of Winter.” 11-23-1931, p. 1.)

Nov 23: “Two rescue parties of nearly 50 men on horseback battled thru a new storm this afternoon to reach 1,000 Navajo and Zuni Indian pinon nut pickers stranded almost without food on high mesas of the Zuni mountains over a wide district 60 to 100 miles south of Gallup. The first party of Zuni horsemen which left at day break for the Coal Mine canyon area where yesterday a Zuni man, Pushana, was found frozen to death, and then hoped to push on to Cerro Alto, south and east of Ramah. The other party organized at Black Rock shortly before noon was headed for the Atarque district….” (Gallup Independent, NM. “1,300 Indians Stranded In Snow Storm.” 11-25-1931, p. 1.)

Nov 26: “Gallup, N.M., Nov 26 (AP) – A warm Thanksgiving day which caused snows to melt made it possible for hundreds of Navajo and Zuni Indians snowbound in north-western New Mexico to make their way to shelter where food and forage could be obtained. Superintendent W. A. Trotter of the Zuni agency, said Thursday night he had been informed that of the thirteen hundred Indians reported marooned, between 500 and 600 remained to be rescued. These Indians, he said, were on the high mesas where continued cold weather made it impossible for them to break their way through the snow to the lowlands and shelter.

“The little village of Zuni was crowded to overflowing with hundreds of Navajo Indians who were being cared for by the Zunis. Efforts will be made to send many of the Navajos now at Zuni back to their reservations which in some cases are more than a hundred miles from Gallup and Zuni.

“C. G. Wallace, an Indian trader at Atarque, succeeded Thursday in breaking the first trail through to Zuni. He drove a truck and enroute to Zuni gathered 39 Indians whom he met along the way….

“Mourning wails of the Zunis and the sacred chants of their medicine men pierced the icy air of the Zuni Indian agency throughout Thursday as bodies of their tribesmen were brought by relief parties from the snow-blanketed malpais mesas of the reservation. Nine Indians, four of them children, have been found in three camps, frozen to death by the storm which has kept the Indians snowbound in small villages and pinon picker camps for six days.

“Pushing doggedly ahead against freezing winds and through deep snows, 50 horsemen in two parties trying to reach Santa Rita mesa, where 500 Indians are snowbound, followed the same trail over which Coronado marched his men through a blizzard in the winter of 1540. The particular goal of these horsemen is a camp where 40 Indian me, women and children are sheltered only by five Zuni covered wagons. They will have to find the other scattered camps on the mesa. The wagon supply train to Atarque was halted by huge snowdrifts, and the food supplies were transferred to pack horses. A third party from Ramah tried to ascend the south slope of Cerro Alto mesa. Five feet of snow on the north approach had turned back horsemen. More than 1,000 Indians remain to be accounted for….

“This has been the worst storm to sweep the Zuni and southeastern Navajo reservations since 1918, when several hundred Indians were trapped on these same mesas by a blizzard, died of influenza.

“The Santa Rita and Cerro Alto mesas stand at altitudes of 7,200 to 8,000 feet, and are barren except for occasional flats bearded with stubble grass and shrub pinon trees….” (Albuquerque Journal, NM. “Indian Deaths Reach Nine, as Searchers Try to Reach Camps.” 11-27-1931, p. 1.)

Sources

Albuquerque Journal, NM. “Indian Deaths Reach Nine, as Searchers Try to Reach Camps.” 11-27-1931, p. 1. Accessed 4-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/albuquerque-journal-nov-27-1931-p-1/

Donovan, Bill. “1967 snow crisis met by massive rescue effort.” Navajo Times, Window Rock, 12-12-2011. Accessed 4-17-2022 at: https://navajotimes.com/news/2011/1211/121211history.php

Evening News-Journal, Clovis, NM. “Clovis Section Feels Icy Clutch of Winter.” 11-23-1931, p. 1. Accessed 4-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/clovis-evening-news-journal-nov-23-1931-p-1/

Evening News-Journal, Clovis, NM. “Storm Imperials 1,300 Indians.” 11-26-1931, p. 1. Accessed 4-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/clovis-evening-news-journal-nov-26-1931-p-1/

Gallup Independent, NM. “1,300 Indians Stranded In Snow Storm.” 11-25-1931, p. 1. Accessed 4-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/gallup-independent-nov-25-1931-p-1/

Roswell Daily Record, NM. “Huge Trucks Trying Break Way Through Heavy Snows to Imprisoned Indians.” 11-28-1931, p. 1. Accessed 4-17-2022 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/roswell-daily-record-nov-28-1931-p-1/