58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
Stevenson does not mention a school in Sia during her stay there. A 
Federal Government survey of 1890 lists schools in New Mexico 
“supported in whole or in part by the government, at which were 
pueblo children” (Poore, 1894, p. 421). But this list does not in- 
clude a school at Sia, nor does it list any Sia children in attendance. 
There were two day schools in Jemez at that time. 
Fairly regular attendance at the day school in Sia began about 
1893, judging from reports of Indian agents, but it was erratic and 
interrupted from time to time. Thus, Halseth (1924 b, p. 68) re- 
ported that in 1923-24 there was “a government schoolhouse at the 
pueblo but for the past several years there has been no teacher in 
attendance.” Attendance at the Sia day school fluctuated from 27 
in 1893 to 25 in 1910. One of the highest estimates was 36 for 1899; 
one of the lowest was 13 for 1919. In 1930 the attendance was 
only 26 for the day school (U.S. Senate, 1932, pt. 19, p. 9883). But 
by 1950-51 it had risen to 51, and it was approximately that figure 
by the close of my survey in 1957. 
Sia, like other New Mexico pueblos, has sent some children to 
boarding schools: to Federal Government Indian schools in Albu- 
querque and Santa Fe and to Catholic schools in Bernalillo and Santa 
Fe, but principally to the Government schools. Eight children from 
Sia attended the Albuquerque Indian school in 1887 (McKinney, 
1945, p. 121). The Indian Agent reported in 1901 that ‘Sia and 
Santo Domingo pueblos placed a class of boys in the boarding school, 
the first that has been sent for at least ten years to any school” (Rep. 
Comm. Indian Aff. for 1901, p. 551). Sixteen Sia children were in 
schools in Santa Fe and Bernalillo in 1923-24 (Halseth, 1924 b, p. 68). 
In 1930, 7 Sias were in the Albuquerque Indian School; 19 were in 
the Indian School in Santa Fe (U.S. Senate, 1932, pt. 19, p. 9883). 
In 1956-57, 35 Sias attended Government Indian boarding schools; 
4 attended mission and private boarding schools (Records of the 
United Pueblos Agency, 1957). 
The day school at Sia in the early days was much like the pueblo in 
general: poor and wretched. In 1898 the Indian agent reported that 
the “school is conducted in a building rented from an Indian. It is 
in a most lamentable condition, without any ventilation whatever; 
narrow dirt floor, poor light, and altogether it is not fit for a stable... . 
The attendance, however, is the best of any of the schools, every 
child except one being in school” (Rep. Comm. Indian Aff., 1898, 
p. 208). In 1905, however, the Indian Agent reported that “there is 
a very good day school here [Sia].’’ He also stated that a noonday 
lunch had been instituted the previous year and that it had “improved 
the attendance and health of the children, as heretofore it was often 
the case that children went to school hungry, having little to eat at 
