White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 59 
home” (Rep. Comm. Ind. Aff., 1905, p. 275). It is not known how 
long the practice of serving a noonday meal was continued, but 
school authorities at the United Pueblos Agency stated in 1957 that 
it had been instituted not many years previous to that time, and they 
apparently believed that it was an innovation at that time. 
No Sia has ever attended the great Indian schools, Carlisle and 
Haskell, as far as we could ascertain, although some children from 
other New Mexico pueblos have done so. No Sia has ever attended 
a college or university, with the exception of two or three ex-service 
men who went to the New Mexico Agricultural and Mechanical 
College at Las Cruces at Federal Government expense, for a time 
after World War II. 
It is extremely difficult to try to assess the significance of American 
schooling in the life of Sia. We may be quite sure that the children 
did not learn much during the first few decades the day school was in 
operation. We know that many of them did not acquire an enduring 
command of simple and meager English. The status of a lone white 
woman teacher in, or on the outskirts of, the pueblo was not such as 
to inculcate in the children a desire for book learning or an inclination 
to acquire American ways. In recent decades the day school has 
unquestionably been more influential. The school is larger and 
offers more varied and more effective instruction: in recent years, 
for example, moving pictures are shown occasionally in the school- 
house in the evening and the entire pueblo is invited to attend. Also, 
times have changed and the attitude toward American culture is 
not what it once was. Sia is much less isolated than formerly and it 
is obvious to all that American culture is something that has to be 
reckoned with whether they like it or not. And many Sias realize 
that a good command of English and some acquaintance with Ameri- 
can culture is an asset in dealing with the outside world. 
The boarding schools, both Government and church, but especially 
the former, have been much more influential, I believe, in bringing 
about culture change in Sia than has the local day school, and for 
decades a goodly number of Sias have attended boarding schools. 
The boarding school removes the child from his home for months at a 
time, away from the influence of his family and the community with 
its rituals and ceremonies. It obliges the child to learn English, for 
he must have this language to communicate with his fellow pupils of 
other linguistic stocks. It throws him into close association with 
children from other pueblos and even with non-pueblo Indians. 
Some marriages eventuate from these associations. Children at the 
boarding schools have occasional opportunity to explore the novelties 
of urban culture in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and to learn consider- 
able about it. Some of the older girls obtain summer employment as 
