28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
Capt. John G. Bourke spent a few days at Sia in 1881. He made 
numerous inquiries about the religion and social organization, and 
recorded some valuable observations about the pueblo: 
[The village] I found to my astonishment, to be almost entirely in ruins; 
there were lights in nine houses only [when he arrived in the evening shortly 
after dark]; and many were occupied as stables for burros & cattle. Allowing 
for other families absent or asleep & not having lights in their houses, there 
can’t be over fifteen families in Zia today. The deserted and ruined buildings 
would lead one to believe that it contained in its palmy days ten times as many. 
[Later he observed that] this pueblo has evidently been at one time very large. . . 
One of the houses ... is two stories high. . . Windows of selenite in every 
house except one or two of the newest... Saw an eagle, kept a prisoner 
in an abandoned house . . . [Bloom, 1938, pp. 219-223.] 
Bourke also described the Catholic church; I cite his account on 
page 64. 
In 1883, the Indian agent reported that ‘‘the pueblo of Zia plants 
little. It enjoys good health, and has a considerable number of 
animals. It is superstitious and unclean, but promises to learn’’ 
(Rep. Com. Ind. Aff. for 1883, p. 123). 
A brief description of Sia and the mode of life there is given in a 
report by Henry R. Poore (1894, pp. 430-431). He comments upon 
the ruinous condition of the village, the meager population, and the 
poverty. He deals with a few other aspects, also, which I shall refer 
to topically later on. 
The Indian Agent in 1897 reported that the Sia, because of a hail- 
storm which had destroyed their wheat crop, were ‘‘absolutely without 
the means of support.’”’ He commended “them to the charitable 
commiseration of the Department” (Rep. Com. Ind. Aff. for 
1897, pp. 200-01). 
