White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 77 
them at considerable length. I got these impressions: They felt, or 
wanted to feel, or insisted that they felt that the religion for which 
they had forsaken their home and birthplace was the only true faith 
and that they could not go back on it. Their hardships, persecutions, 
and loneliness were in the tradition of Christian martyrdom, and as 
such became both comprehensible and endurable. I could not help 
but feel, however, that they were desperately lonely, that they felt 
out of place in the competitive, individualistic, impersonal community 
_ of Whites, Mexicans, and Negroes that was Albuquerque, and longed 
for home, their own, proper home. ‘They had found another people’s 
god and the promise of Heaven in the hereafter, but they had lost 
their home on this earth, here and now. But they had made their 
decision, they had left the tiny pueblo in the beautiful valley of the 
Jemez River that every Sia loves, and there was no road back. Or, 
was there? 
Sia has declared officially, as I understand it, that the dissenters 
are free to return at any time providing they abandon their heresy and 
prove that they are willing to live according to the faith and customs 
of the pueblo. But Sia has also made it clear that it will not tolerate 
further interference by Protestant evangelists. Some years ago, 
after the Holy Rollers had left Sia, a Protestant missionary stationed 
in Bernalillo came to the pueblo several times. He was told by the 
governor that he was free to visit the pueblo but that he would not 
be permitted to hold meetings or to proselytize. He declined to 
abide by these conditions and was consequently barred from the 
pueblo. In 1957 I interviewed the missionary at the Pilgrim Mission 
School near Bernalillo and on the road to Sia with regard to his work 
among the Indians. He told me that Sia was “‘a closed pueblo” and 
that he was not permitted to work there. 
PROTESTANTISM AT JEMEZ 
Heresy broke out at Jemez, too, and for a time the conflict assumed 
serious proportions. I do not propose to tell that story here (see U.S. 
Senate, 1932, pt. 19, pp. 10038-10039, for a statement by the Pres- 
byterian missionary at Jemez who testified that he had a number of 
converts in Jemez but that the pueblo authorities were intimidating 
and persecuting them). But the principles and conclusions set forth 
by a court which tried a suit brought against the pueblo by a group 
of dissenters are relevant to the situation at Sia and do much to 
clarify the issues involved and to specify the rights and limitations 
of the two contending parties. 
Six Jemez Indians brought suit against the Pueblo of Jemez: 
“Toledo et al. v. Pueblo of Jemez et al. Civ. A. No. 2410. US. 
District Court, D. New Mexico, March 8, 1954.’’ [It will be recalled 
that one of the Sia heretics, Refugia Moquino, married a Jemez 
