34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
as well—fruits of the educational work of the Franciscan mission- 
aries. . . . Inthe Vargas documents there are filed a number of letters 
written by the Indian governors of Santa Ana Tesuque to Vargas, 
and in very good Castilian’ (Espinosa, 1942, p. 135 n. 72). Bart- 
olomé de Ojeda of Sia (see p. 23) was one of these. Father Domin- 
quez (1956, p. 175) reported in 1776 that the natives of the Keresan 
pueblos spoke Spanish, “but brokenly.”? In 1890, 73 of the 106 Sia 
could speak Spanish, but only 1 was able to read and write that lan- 
guage; only 3 could speak English; 2 were said to be able to read and 
write English (Poore, 1894, p. 420). In 1910, 73 percent of the Sia 
of 10 years of age and over were unable to speak English; among the 
Keresan pueblos the percentage of those unable to speak English 
was highest at Santo Domingo (85) and lowest at Laguna (55). This 
percentage was higher among women than among men, both at Sia 
and among the Keres in general (U.S. Bur. Census, 1915, p. 245). In 
1936, 125 of the 203 Sia were able to speak English; 110 were able to 
read and write English (United Pueblos Agency). 
I did not make a linguistic census of Sia, but I believe the following 
statements are valid: (1) Almost everyone can speak some Spanish, 
enough at least for social and business intercourse with their Mexican 
neighbors; some speak it as well as their Spanish-American neighbors. 
(2) Almost everyone except those of 60 years of age or more can speak 
English. (3) The percentage of people who can speak English has 
definitely increased since 1900. (4) Most persons below the age of 
45 can read and write English. (5) A few Sias can speak some Nav- 
aho; a few know some words in the Jemez language but not enough, 
I believe, to carry on a conversation in that tongue. 
POPULATION 
As we have already seen, Espejo described Sia in 1583 as “a very 
large pueblo. . . with eight plazas. . .”’ the principal one of the five 
pueblos in the province of Los Punames. Luxén called it ‘‘an impor- 
tant city of more than a thousand houses inhabited by more than four 
thousand men over fifteen years of age, and women and children in 
addition”” (Hammond and Rey, eds., 1929, pp. 83-84). This is no 
doubt a gross exaggeration, but the extensive ruins upon which the 
modern village rests indicate that the town was once considerably 
larger than it has been during the past century. It is said that some 
600 Sias were killed by Cruzate when he destroyed their pueblo in 1689, 
and yet Vargas found enough survivors to reoccupy the village after 
his reconquest. Turning to actual accounts, accurate or otherwise, 
we have data for various times between 1694 and 1957 presented in 
table 1, and in part in figure 38. 
