ETHNOBOOLOCJV OF THE TBWA INDIANS 13 



Reported at Santa Ke by Miller. 1 



We observed bats at El Rito de los Frijoles in the evenings of the 

 first ten days in August, 1910, but saw none later, and failed to obtain 

 any for identification. 



Bats are classed with birds by the Tewa, although the Mexicans of 

 the Tewa country call them ratones voladores, flying rats or mice. 

 Sip i is said to be applied to any species of bat. 



Ko ?y (akin to Taos kanend, buffalo). 



Bison bison (Linn.). American Bison, Buffalo. 



Although the bison, its habits, and methods of hunting it, are known 

 to the Tewa by hearsay, it appears that very few individuals have 

 ever seen a bison alive. Old Diego Roybal of San Ildefonso, although 

 he loves to tell about the bison, has never seen one. J. M. Naranjo 

 of Santa Clara has seen bison on the plains &quot;about halfway between 

 here and Saint Louis.&quot; In former times the Tewa trafficked in the 

 skins and other products, and occasionally hunted the animal on. the 

 plains to the eastward, before its extermination there. Whole bison 

 skins or portions of them, with the hair on, are still to be found 

 among the Tewa and are used as &quot;medicine&quot; (wo) and for other 

 purposes. Bison horns are also used as headdresses in the bison 

 dance (Ico^rjfare) held at San Ildefonso on January 24th of each year. 



The Tewa do not know that the bison ever ranged in or west of 

 their country. Dr. Allen, in his monograph on the bison, 2 says: 



1 have found no record of their existence in the highlands of New Mexico, or any 

 where to the westward or southward of Santa Fe. 



Bandelier, 3 commenting on a Spanish place-name of the region 

 south of Santa Fe, says: 



One of these bears the name &quot; Ojo del C ibolo. This seems to imply that the buffalo 

 once ranged as far as the base of the San Francisco and San Pedro Mountains. 



Hornaday, on. his map showing the extermination of the bison, 4 

 gives 1840 as the date of its extermination in the Rio Grande Valley 

 of northern New Mexico and places the limit of its former range in 

 western New Mexico. 



In another place in his monograph (p. 474) Dr. Allen qualifies his 

 statement hereinbefore quoted, under the subheading, &quot;Probable 

 extent of its former range,&quot; as follows: 



Westward it extended over northern New Mexico and then westward and northward 

 throughout the great Salt Lake Basin. 



Miller, Gerrit S., op. cit., pp. 64-65. 



2 Allen, J. A., History of the American Bison, Bison americanus, Ninth Ann. Rep. U.S.Geol. & Geop. 

 Surv. Terr, for 1875 (Hayden Survey), p. 517, 1877. 



3 Bandelier, A. F. , Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States, 

 Carried on Mainly in the Years from 1880 to 1885, Part ir, Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, 

 American Series, iv, p. 254, 1892. 



^Hornaday, William T., The Extermination of the American Bison, Ann. Rep. U. S. Nat. Museum 

 for 1887, 1889. 



