72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
The heretics tell a plaintive tale of persecution which I heard at 
length from two sources: Willie Moquino and Rita, his Santo Domingo 
wife,’ in 1941, and from George and Viviano Herrera in 1952. After 
the initial attitude of curiosity, tolerance, and in some cases sympa- 
thetic interest, the people of Sia turned against the converts to the 
new faith. They ‘“‘said mean things’ to them and about them; some 
people refused to speak to them. Young children were permitted 
or encouraged to throw rocks at them. Then matters became worse. 
They were denied water for irrigation, and an attempt was made to 
refuse them water for drinking and household purposes. George 
Herrera was told that his cattle could no longer be permitted to graze 
on pueblo lands. Without water for irrigation and without pasture 
for herds and flocks life at Sia would, of course, be virtually impossible. 
“They were trying to drive us out of the pueblo.” Rita said that 
the governor of Sia tried to force Willie Moquino to sell his, and 
perhaps his mother’s, property at Sia in order to get rid of them. 
Thus, the converts reported that they suffered persecution, indignities, 
and severe economic loss. 
ORTHODOX VERSION 
The orthodox version of the schism, as reported by a mature man 
who witnessed the whole affair, is as follows: George Herrera was 
the first to be converted; he was followed by members of two other 
families, those of Reyes Ansala and Juana Rosita Galvan. George 
made vigorous efforts to convert others, but no one else would join. 
This went on for 4 or 5 years. Finally the council called George 
Herrera and San Juanito Moquino to a meeting ‘‘to stand trial.” 
The defendants had Mrs. Crawford’s assistant, F. C., come to Sia to 
be present, but the Council would not admit him ‘‘because that was 
an all-Indian affair.” 
George told the council that his conversion to the new religion 
obliged him to give up, wholly and completely, the old Indian religion. 
This meant that he could no longer take part in dancing, hold office, 
gather wood for the cacique, repair the church or kivas, or take part 
in communal hunts. Also, he could have nothing to do with the 
Catholic church or any of the Indian ceremonies associated with it. 
He did agree, however, to work on the irrigation ditches and to help 
maintain pueblo fences. 
’ She was about 27 years old at that time. She was a handsome woman with bright, shining eyes and 
an alert manner, She talked readily, incisively, and well; her English was good and she was perfectly 
fluent and coherent. She spoke with great feeling about the only true religion which she had at last found 
and about the persecutions which she and the Sia heretics had suffered at the hands of their benighted 
townsfolk. She said that she was the only Santo Domingo Indian who had been saved. She no longer 
lived in the pueblo but returned to it occasionally. Once when she was there her brother slapped and 
abused her, but she merely said “Praise the Lord,’’ which only made him the more furious. Two of her 
brothers were living in Albuquerque in 1941, but they had not become converts. 
