White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 71 
Herrera and his wife, a sister of Juanita Simbola, both were converted 
but that later they ‘“‘backslid.’”’ All of Benina’s children were said to 
belong to the new religion, but they were very young, or as yet unborn, 
when the conversions began; Willie, the eldest, was still in his teens. 
Augustin Moquino died suddenly during the period of the conversions; 
we do not know how he was inclined. His mother, brother, and 
sister became converts, and his wife, Benina, joined after his death. 
The approximate ages of some of the converts in 1930—without 
regard to the dates of their respective conversions—are as follows: 
Juan Pedro Herrera, 74; his wife, Reyes, 60; Juana Rosita Galvan 
(Moquino), 70; San Juanito Moquino, 32; Augustino Moquino, 45; 
George Herrera, 34; Benina, 35; Willie Moquino, the eldest of Benina’s 
children, 18. An informant who had a copy of Stevenson’s ‘The 
Sia” identified the women shown in her plate 3 as Reyes Ansala and 
Juana Rosita Moquino, the latter on the right. 
Interesting, too, is the relationship between the position held in the 
aboriginal religion and conversion. Jose Rey Shije, who first invited 
Mrs. Crawford to Sia and to whose house she went on her first visit, 
was a Shima medicineman. San Juanito Moquino and Viviano 
Herrera were members of the Katsina society. Most remarkable, 
however, was Juan Pedro Herrera, who, it will be recalled, asked why 
Mrs. Crawford could not preach in the church, was the head of the 
Koshairi and a member of the Giant society. On the other hand, 
Augustin Moquino, who did not join, was not a member of any society. 
We do not have precise data on which converts left Sia and which 
remained. George Herrera and his brothers Velino and Viviano, and 
Benina and her children, left the pueblo. Refugia Moquino married 
a Jemez Indian and left Sia. Ascenciona Herrera, wife of Jose Cruz 
Galvan, wished very much to remain in Sia and has done so with the 
understanding that she would not obtrude her religion upon others. 
Many of the converts have married non-Sia. In addition to 
Refugia Moquino, mentioned above, George and Velino Herrera 
married Picuris Indian women. A number of Benina’s children have 
married non-Sia, but all but Willie were probably too young to marry 
before they left Sia. Willie married first a Santo Domingo woman; 
later he wed a white woman. Ignacio married a girl from San Juan; 
Leandro, a Mescalero Apache; Maria Reyes, a Hopi; Lucinda, a 
Laguna; Toribio, an Acoma. I understand that none of these spouses, 
with the possible exception of Ignacio’s wife, is a member of the new 
religion. Marcelina, daughter of George Herrera, was married and 
living in San Juan in 1952. 
