88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
LIVESTOCK 
Horses, mules, burros, cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs are kept. 
The earliest count of livestock that we have for Sia is in the report 
of Indian Agent Ward for 1864: horses, 10; mules, 2; burros, 36; cows, 
70; oxen, 32; swine, 0 (Rep. Com. Ind. Aff., 1865, p. 199). No sheep 
or goats are mentioned in this report, although the Sia un- 
doubtedly kept them at that time. The next count is that of the 
Indian Agent for 1885: cattle, 400; sheep, 300; horses, 300; burros, 50; 
hogs, 10 (Rep. Com. Ind. Aff., 1885, p. 156). In 1890, Poore (1894, 
p. 431) counted 650 cows and oxen, 300 horses, 40 mules, 100 burros. 
Like Ward, Poore does not give figures for sheep and goats, perhaps 
because they were out on the range and anything like an adequate 
count would have been impossible. Poore’s figures are the largest on 
record up to 1957. Stevenson, reporting for the late 1890’s, says 
(1894, p.25): ‘The Sia own about 150 horses.”’ 
Burros were much used in the past as pack animals. Their number 
has decreased drastically since the turn of the century; Sia has had 
but few, if any, since the 1940’s. 
The need for horses, also, has diminished, and their numbers have 
decreased. Formerly, horses were used primarily, if not solely, for 
transportation: for riding and drawing wagons. The pickup truck has 
replaced them extensively. Horses and mules are used to some 
extent in farm work, but I have no data on this point. The principal 
use of horses that I have observed is in the ceremony of gallo, or 
rooster pull. Apparently it was rather generally felt, during the 1940’s 
and perhaps even earlier, that there were too many horses and too few 
uses for them, for an Indian Agency study in 1952 stated that “it is 
highly desirable that the program of disposing of excess horses be 
continued.’”’? The number of horses and mules (the two are not dis- 
tinguished in many reports) remained fairly constant between 1936 
and 1951; the average for 6 selected years during this period was 148 
head. According to United Pueblos Agency reports, Sia had 173 
horses and mules in 1951, only 91 in 1956. 
In the old days, and as recently as 1910 according to informants, 
horses were tended in a communal herd (see p. 130). 
As we have seen, the Sia had 400 head of cattle in 1885; 5 years 
later they had 650 head. The number of cattle has remained fairly 
constant over the years. The average for 7 selected years between 
1936 and 1956, inclusive, was 480 head. ‘These have been beef cattle 
with very few exceptions, and these only within recent years. No 
reference at all was made to dairy cattle in early reports; the report 
of 1941 stated specifically that there were no milk cows. In 1946, 
however, there were 5 milk cows; in 1951, 7. The Pueblo Indians 
had no cows in pre-Spanish times and of course used no milk. They 
