2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
and Rio Grande pueblos (Stevenson, 1894, p. 14). ‘‘Whenever the 
stay was long enough to become acquainted with the people,” she 
writes, ‘the confidence of the priestly rulers and theurgists was gained, — 
and after this conciliation all efforts to be present at the most secret 
and sacred performances observed and practiced by these Indians 
were successful” (ibid., p. 14). 
Matilda Stevenson was, therefore, the best qualified person avail- 
able to prepare her husband’s material for publication. But another 
field trip was deemed necessary, and accordingly she went to Sia in 
March 1890, where she remained until the middle of September of the 
same year (Powell, 1894 a, p. xxx; 1894 b, pp. xxix, xxvi-xxvii). No 
further fieldwork was done, apparently, before the publication of her 
monograph, ‘The Sia,’’ in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology in 1894. Mrs. Stevenson spent most of the 
month of August 1904 in Sia. The Bureau of American Ethnology 
has unpublished manuscript material gathered by her at Sia, Taos, 
and other pueblos. 
“The Sia’ is an excellent work in many respects. Mrs. Stevenson 
was able to observe many things directly and was even allowed to 
photograph esoteric ceremonies and sacred paraphernalia. In addi- 
tion to observation, she obtained considerable material from inform- 
ants. But her monograph does not deal with ‘every phase of the 
life of this small but interesting tribe,’’ as Holmes has asserted (Holmes, 
1916, p. 553). The monograph is 149 pages long; 35 percent is de- 
voted to myths and tales and 20 percent, to descriptions of rain 
ceremonies of four societies (the Snake, Giant, Knife or Flint, and 
Querranna societies). Thus, over half of the monograph is devoted 
to these two items alone. Then she has accounts of childbirth (7.5 
percent), translations of songs (5.4 percent), descriptions of a curing 
ceremony by the Giant society (observed) and the initiation ceremony 
of the Snake society (from an informant) which together amount to 
about 6.8 percent. Thus, about 75 percent of the monograph is taken 
up with the above-mentioned topics, leaving but 25 percent for 
everything else. 
Many sectors of Sia culture are ignored completely by Mrs. Steven- 
son or are mentioned only in passing. There is but the most meager 
discussion of clan organization, and no mention of moieties at all. 
Family and household organization are all but omitted. She collected 
kinship terms but they were not published in the monograph; they are 
in the files of the Bureau of American Ethnology. The whole subject 
of kinship is virtually ignored in ‘The Sia.”’ Kachinas are spoken of 
briefly, but no masked dances are described. In fact, she does not 
describe any dances at all, or even list their names. Solar ceremonies 
are not mentioned. Material culture; arts and crafts; agriculture; 
