White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 69 
On the first night after his return to Sia, George Herrera went to 
his parents’ house to spend the night (he was a widower at that time 
and had a house of his own). At midnight a rustling wind filled the 
room, waking himup. Then he heard a voice speaking to him in the 
Keresan language. It said: “It is not that anymore. Tell all your 
people to come this way and to do their own [i.e., the new] religion, 
and give them this and give them that.’”’ George identified this 
experience with a passage in the Bible: “‘And suddenly there came 
from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled 
all the house where they were sitting” (The Acts 2: 2). 
George was frightened by the voice. He said, “Let my people live 
the way they have been living for a while.” But the voice spoke to 
him again, repeating what it had said before. 
On the second night after his return, George was again wakened at 
midnight by the rustling of the wind, and again the voice spoke to 
him, telling him to lead his people to the new religion. 
On the third night [before his conversion things went by fours in 
traditional Indian fashion; afterward, they went by threes], George 
slept in his own house. This time, after the rustling of the wind, the 
voice told him: “You are chosen to be a preacher (nyitikoyacéd).” 
He knew then that he must try to convert the Sia to the new faith. 
George asked the War captain to call a meeting of all the people so 
that he could address them and tell them about the new religion. 
But the War captain assembled only the officers; he told George that 
they, the officers, could communicate God’s message to the people. 
George addressed the officers, but, as he told me, “this was not 
enough.”’ 
George took his duty as preacher and missionary seriously. He 
tried various ways to bring the message to the people of Sia. He got 
a group together in front of the church and preached to them. He 
invited people to meetings in his house. F.C., Mrs. Crawford’s chief 
assistant, came up a few times and conducted meetings in George’s 
house. 
For a time many of the Sia seemed to show a sympathetic interest 
in the new religion, but after a time almost everyone turned his back 
upon it; many became quite hostile toward it and its new converts. 
San Juanito Moquino was the second Sia to be converted. He 
went to Albuquerque to be treated for boils. He attended Mrs. Craw- 
ford’s meetings, but no cure was effected. He returned to Sia for a 
day, then went back to Albuquerque where he died [in 1937 or 1938, 
L. A. W.]. His body was brought back to Sia by a group of Holy 
Rollers, all of whom were Negroes. [Mrs. Crawford and F. C. were 
Whites, but all the non-Indian members of the congregation to which 
George Herrera and his group belonged in 1952 were Negroes, as we 
600685—62——-6 
