White] THE PUEBLO OF SIA, NEW MEXICO 105 
houses—and inside the houses, also, if their occupants desire, or will 
permit, it—the privies, refuse heaps, and corrals. ‘They report that 
bedbugs are numerous in Sia dwellings, some body lice, but very few 
fleas. ‘‘Field mice” (possibly Reithrodontomys megalotis) are said to 
be numerous, but there are virtually no rats (Rattus norvegicus). 
Dogs are vaccinated against rabies. The sanitarians offer instruction 
and give demonstrations of proper methods of sanitation in the home, 
including care and preservation of food, techniques of dishwashing, 
- and soon. A young women’s club in Sia also is working to improve 
the health of the community. 
Influenza in winter and intestinal ailments in summer were the 
most common, and probably most serious, sicknesses in Sia during 
the mid-1950’s, according to Government doctors and nurses. I was 
told in 1957 that tuberculosis had declined appreciably, but was still 
present. ‘Trachoma had almost disappeared. ‘“They don’t get polio 
and never did.”” The rate of venereal disease was less for Sia than 
for neighboring Anglo- and Spanish-American populations. 
Data on the pathology of the Sia are meager. A woman physician, 
Dr. H, who had worked closely with them for a time, told me in 1957 
that women were rather prone to a disease or disorder of the hip. 
Stillbirths and deaths of mothers during childbirth were estimated to 
be neither more nor less common at Sia than in the population of 
New Mexico generally. According to some reports, both Indian and 
Governmental, many Sia women were loath to have their babies in 
the Indian Service hospital. One reason given was that some who 
have done so have had no more children. However, Dr. H. esti- 
mated that 40 percent of Sia babies in 1957 were born in hospitals. 
Women were disinclined, also, to take their babies and young children 
to the Government hospital during the 1950’s. One reason is that 
they do not wish to have their children hospitalized unless they can 
stay at the hospital with them; this was formerly possible at the 
hospital at the Albuquerque Indian School, but was not possible at 
the hospital to which the Sia were sent in the 1950’s. Dr. H. told 
me that a mother had virtually nothing to say about whether her 
baby should be sent to the hospital or not. Her father would be 
the principal one to decide this question, and in any event the decision 
would be made by men. According to a Government physician and 
a nurse, the Sia do not practice either contraception or abortion. 
In the mid-1950’s there were three men, brothers, at Sia who were 
deaf and dumb. Two other men wore hearing aids; one woman was 
totally deaf but would use no aid. One small girl was very cross- 
eyed; one child was said to be feeble-minded; another, an epileptic. 
There have been no albinos in Sia, for many years at least, according 
to all informants, although they are fairly numerous at nearby Jemez, 
