HEALTH, SANITATION, AND DIET 
HEALTH AND SANITATION 
As we have already seen (p. 34), the population of Sia declined 
_ greatly after the Spanish conquest, during the great revolt and re- 
conquest, 1680-89, and thereafter, reaching its lowest point about 
1880. There can be but little doubt that sickness and inadequate 
nutrition have played an important part in this decrease. We have 
noted that a particularly severe epidemic of smallpox ravaged the 
Pueblo country in 1780-81, striking the nearby pueblo of Santa Ana 
with especial virulence and no doubt affecting Sia greatly as well. 
We have also seen that an epidemic of an eye disease hit the Sia in 
1897 (p. 60). The report of the Indian Agent in 1899 stated that 
there had been much sickness at Sia and other nearby pueblos: ‘small 
pox and diphtheria being the principal diseases”’ (Rep. Com. Ind. Aff., 
1899, p. 264). We have no other accounts of particular epidemics or 
occasions of high mortality but our information is far from complete 
and adequate. 
A physician of the U.S. Indian Field Service at Albuquerque re- 
ported on health conditions at Sia for 1923 (Halseth, 1924 b, p. 78). 
“The general health condition at Zia is good,” he said; trachoma and 
bowel disorders were the ‘‘most prevalent diseases.’’ Only one case 
of tuberculosis was found; none of venereal disease. 
In 1931 the superintendent of the Pueblos Agency listed trachoma 
as ‘‘the most prevalent disease . . . among the Pueblo Indians” (U.S. 
Senate, 1932, pt. 19, p. 9876). 
The ‘number of cases of selected communicable diseases and case 
rates’ for the pueblos of New Mexico in 1956, as reported in a program 
analysis of the U.S. Public Health Service, March 28, 1957, were as 
shown in table 26. 
TABLE 26.—Communicable diseases, 1956, per 100,000 population 
(a penenmonia=--22-5_- nee Bs Sr 1, 874 |} (10) | Tuberculosis, nonrespiratory- ------- 78 
(Gl) || IMAGES) Re a ee eee See ae 1, 323 |] (11) aon ine | cough es Ree ee ee 72 
(3) iiibarenilokls; TESPINa Ona ese eee Be4q een wbiphthenne- = see ee eee 36 
(ple@nickenpox ss... 52420 = oe hee Be 305 {| (13) Infectious Tapall TH ee rae te? 30 
ED) || ANGE H coy ek Sah ees RE UAE ee ee ORISA) | orachorm tess es ee ne oe oe See 30 
(a5) -|] tra G Eb Ce 0 fs Se ee 233 || (15) | Scarlet, fever and strep sore throat-- 30 
(Hay philis and'sequelae—__ 222-2 2 PAE WMA ANG) hel | Abang oh ea) 6 (em Se ee eS ee 18 
(8) | Gonococcal infections---....._....___. 162 |] (17) | Acute pollinval tis meee ee eens 12 
(9)") Dysentery, all forms! -=--2- 22 222.2 795\|@8)") Ampthrax® 20222 oo ees cacdaeeneescos 12 
600685—62——_8 
