White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 67 
or early 1930’s some Sia joined an evangelical Protestant sect in 
Albuquerque. They thereupon repudiated and rejected both their 
Indian religion and that of the Roman Catholic Church. They 
tried also to convert others in Sia to their new faith, but in this they 
had but little success; the overwhelming majority of Sia declined to 
accept, or vigorously opposed, the new religion. Eventually virtually 
all the converts—who soon found themselves in the role of heretics— 
left the pueblo, either by request of the Sia authorities or because 
their position had been made so difficult that they no longer cared to 
live there. 
THE SIA HERESY 
From time to time during my study of Sia I heard of these heretics 
from orthodox members of Sia and other pueblos nearby. They were 
always spoken of as “Holy Rollers’ or ‘‘Hallelujahs,” and almost al- 
ways derisively. Protestant ministers in Jemez and Bernalillo were in- 
cluded in the category ‘‘Holy Roller.”’” The adjective almost always 
used by the orthodox to characterize Protestant missionaries and 
their Indian converts was ‘‘crazy’’ (White, 1942 a, p. 67). The 
religious behavior of the Holy Rollers was usually described as some- 
what orgiastic: ‘‘They holler and yell and cry.” 
In 1941 I spent an evening with one of the Sia heretics and his 
Santo Domingo wife, who were living in Albuquerque at that time. 
They gave me their story. In 1952 I interviewed Gregorio (George) 
Herrera, the first of the converts at Sia and the leader of the heresy, 
at considerable length. He was living in Albuquerque along with 
other members of the group. This interview was followed by a full 
discussion of the affair with an orthodox member of Sia, who gave 
his version of it. Finally, the records of the U.S. District Court in 
Santa Fe were consulted for an account of the lawsuit brought against 
the Pueblo of Sia by the heretics. A fairly well-balanced and com- 
plete account of the whole episode was thus obtained. 
Florence Hawley (1948) has published an account of this heresy 
also. Her version is substantially like mine except for details, 
Jennifer Chatfield (1948, p. 78.) wrote a master’s thesis on the subject. 
Her thesis contains copies of letters written by George Herrera to 
the United Pueblos Agency (presumably), presenting the case of the 
heretics. 
In what follows I shall merely report faithfully what the informants 
said; I cannot, of course, guarantee the veracity of their statements 
and cannot be held responsible for errors or distortion. 
HERETICS’ VERSION 
In the late 1920’s there was a woman missionary in Albuquerque 
named Mrs. Crawford. She had a husband and children; they had 
