56 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull, 184 
POTTERY 
The Sia have long enjoyed a reputation for excellence in pottery 
making. BPandelier (1892, p. 300) characterized their pottery as 
“quite elaborately decorated and handsome, much superior to that 
of Cochiti and San Felipe.”’ In Stevenson’s day Santa Ana and 
Jemez used to obtain their ceramic wares from Sia rather than make 
them themselves (Stevenson, 1894, pp. 11-12; Chapman, 1936, vol. 
2, p. 6; 1938, p. 9). The slip ‘is white, but through use, it wears thin 
and becomes translucent, so that the reddish body clay imparts an 
ever deepening flesh tone to the surface. To the traditional geomet- 
ric designs of the early post-Spanish period have been added a pro- 
fusion of plant and bird motifs, so that the range of Tsia decoration 
is wonderfully varied” (Chapman, 1936, v. 2, p. 6). Designs are 
painted on the white slip in black and henna, or buff, colors: these 
are the terms used by Maerz and Paul (1950) for shades 12-I, J, 
and K in plate 6, and for 9, 10, 11-C, and 10-D on plate 13, which 
match the colors used on Sia pottery. The Sia make their black 
paint from a mineral rather than from the Rocky Mountain Bee 
plant which is used for this purpose in so many pueblos. This 
mineral, collected by a Sia informant and myself a few miles north- 
west of the pueblo, was identified as ‘‘a mixture of pyrolusite (MnO,), 
limonite (Fe,0;nH;O), and psilomelane (MnO,, BaO, HO)” (see 
White, 1948, p. 370, for fuller discussion of this subject; see, also, 
Shepard, 1956, pp. 40-42, for data on use of manganese and iron- 
manganese paints in pottery decoration). The potter’s wheel is not 
used. 
Apparatus for firing is crude. I once saw one of the better pot- 
ters at Sia place her wares on the heavy wire springs skeleton of an 
automobile cushion, then cover them with slabs of sheep manure dug 
from a corral, and proceed with the firing. Shepard (1956, pp. 
83-85) has described the firing process at Sia. She recorded a max- 
imum temperature of 940° C., which was considerably higher than 
those noted by her at San Ildefonso and Cochiti. 
The closest resemblances to Sia pottery are to be found in former 
Santa Ana wares and at Acoma (K. M. Chapman, personal communi- 
cation; see White, 1942 a, p. 48, for fuller statement). James Stevenson 
(1883, pp. 454-455) made a collection of pottery at Sia in 1880 which 
was deposited in the U.S. National Museum. Matilda Stevenson 
has fine illustrations of ceremonial bowls in “The Sia” (1894, pls. 
16 and 35, in color; pl. 4 in black and white). Photographs of Sia 
ceramic wares may be found also in Chapman (1936, vol. 2, pls. 
51-59, in color; 1938, p. 9). Mera discusses Sia pottery in ‘The 
Rain Bird” (1937, pp. 9-10, pls. 29-34); he describes the Puname 
