SIA AND HER NEIGHBORS 
We know, and are able to infer, very little about the history of 
Sia prior to 1540. In subsequent paragraphs I shall draw some 
- inferences with regard to the relationship between Sia and other 
pueblos on the basis of cultural similarities. First, however, I shall 
deal with Sia’s relationships to her neighbors as they are known or as 
they may be reliably inferred. 
The Navaho were the traditional enemies of the Sia, as they were 
of other pueblos in the Jemez-Rio Grande Valleys. There can be 
no doubt about this on the basis of folklore, legend, and recorded 
history. Albert B. Reagan (1917, p. 27), an Indian Agent at Jemez 
for many years, was told by Jemez Indians that in 1866 the Navaho, 
in a surprise attack, killed 66 Sias who were working in their fields 
and that the entire village would have perished had it not been for 
the timely assistance of Jemez warriors. This account is no doubt 
grossly exaggerated, but we know that there were occasional raids 
until the 1880’s. Incidentally, it is characteristic of Pueblo Indians 
to tell stories like this; it is an oblique way of saying that they are 
superior to their neighbors. 
In recent decades, however, friendly relations have obtained be- 
tween the Navaho and the Sia and other nearby pueblos. There 
have been a number of Sia-Navaho marriages. Some Navaho spouses 
have lived in Sia; a Navaho husband was living there in the 1950’s. 
Many Navahos visit Sia at the time of the dance for the patron saint 
(mid—August) and at Christmas. They camp in, or on the edge of, 
the pueblo, trade with the Sia and others; some of them eat or sleep 
in Sia houses. 
We do not know anything about contacts, commercial or warlike, 
that the Sia may have had with the Jicarilla or any other Apache 
group, the Utes, or any other nonpueblo Indian tribe. 
In prehistoric times, Sia’s contacts were, no doubt, closest with 
her nearest neighbors: the Tanoan pueblo of Jemez, and the Keresan 
pueblos Santa Ana, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, and Cochiti. What 
contacts they may have had with the Tewan pueblos to the north, 
Sandia or Isleta to the South, or with Acoma, Zufii, and Hopi to the 
west, we do not know. 
During the reconquest by De Vargas in 1692, Sia, Santa Ana, San 
Felipe, and Pecos sided with the Spaniards; all others were hostile 
and recalcitrant (see, “History of Sia,’ p. 24). In the revolt of 
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