54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
mictca (ashes); they do not have individual names. They have been 
consecrated by a medicine society as a proper and safe place to throw 
refuse. 
CORRALS 
On the east side of the pueblo, down the hill from the dwellings, are 
numerous corrals where horses, cattle, and sheep are kept on occasion. 
There are a few semienclosures with roofs upon which hay is piled for 
winter feeding. There are a few small pens for pigs and turkeys. 
WATER SUPPLY 
The water problem is always one of major concern among the 
pueblos, but it has been especially critical at Sia. They have long 
suffered for want of decent drinking water. ‘“The Rio Salado [Salt 
River],’’ wrote M.C. Stevenson (1894, p. 10), ‘‘empties into the Jemez 
some 4 miles above Sia and so impregnates the waters . . . with salt 
that while it is at all times most unpalatable, in the summer season 
when the river is drained above, the water becomes undrinkable, and 
yet it is this or nothing with the Sia.”” An Indian agent cites the water 
needs of Sia in his reports for 1901 and 1902 (Rep. Comm, Ind. Aff. 
for 1901 and 1902) In 1924 Halseth (1924 a, p. 12) reported that 
“oood drinking water is the most difficult question . . . [the well] 
water is so full of alkali that it has a salty, bitter taste, even when made 
into strong coffee. The river water is softer, when there is any, and 
is mostly used by the the Indians....’’ Sia had only two wells in 
1930 (U.S. Senate, 1932, pt. 19, p. 9929). Two more wells were 
drilled between 1930 and 1957 to supply the village with water. One 
of them is located on a hill a mile or more north of the pueblo; it is 
equipped with an electric pump and the water is piped to the village. 
The other wells are equipped with windmills. For a number of years 
one had to go to the wells to get water. Then a few hydrants were 
placed in the pueblo; more recently water has been piped into many 
houses. Within a decade or two prior to 1957, six wells were 
drilled on the range and equipped with windmills to provide water for 
livestock. The water situation has been enormously improved since 
Stevenson’s day, but it still remains a problem: it was cited as Sia’s 
most urgent problem by a representative of the Pueblo council at a 
conference with Commissioner Glenn L. Emmons in Denver on Au- 
gust 1, 1956. 
STORES 
As the Rio Grande pueblos become more and more acculturated, 
stores tend to make their appearance in them. Cochiti and Santo 
Domingo, for example, had stores in the 1950’s. They were owned 
and operated by Indians of their respective pueblos. Sia has had 
