SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 
OFFICERS 
It is impossible, of course, to determine precisely what officers 
Sia, and other pueblos, had in pre-Spanish times. There is every 
reason to believe, however, that each pueblo had a head, or chief, and 
that he had both religious and political functions. We may be sure, 
also, that there was a War chief. The heads of the medicine societies 
may well have exercised political functions; there is reason to believe 
that they did. And there may have been some subordinate officers 
who served as helpers to the chief priests. 
When the Spaniards entered the pueblo country they caused the 
Indians to designate certain men as officers through whom they could 
deal with the pueblos politically. In 1620, according to Bandelier 
(1890, p. 200), a royal decree of the King of Spain formally established 
certain offices among the pueblos. But before this, at least one 
Spanish explorer, Gaspar Castafio de Sosa, found it expedient to 
establish certain offices. In his expedition of 1590-91 he visited San 
Felipe or Santo Domingo, or both, and a number of Tewa villages; he 
did not go to Sia or Santa Ana, though, so far as the record shows 
(Hull, 1916, pp. 328-29; Bandelier, 1892, p. 123). When he had 
entered a pueblo, ‘“‘the Indians swore allegiance to the king and Sosa 
established there a regular government, appointing from among their 
number governor, alcalde, and alguazil. In all of the inhabited 
pueblos which Sosa subsequently visited like ceremonies were re- 
peated . . .”’ (Hull, 1916, p. 324). 
In 1692, during the reconquest after the Revolt of 1680, Vargas 
visited Cerro Colorado—near Santa Ana—where Indians from a 
number of pueblos had sought refuge, and in a low room “elections 
were held” under the direction of Vargas “for a cacique, his lieu- 
tenant, an alcalde, a fiscal, a constable, and a war captain, to all of 
whom Vargas presented the appropriate emblems of office (‘‘los 
bastones y barros’’) and enjoined them in a solemn ceremony of the 
obligations to fulfill their duties’ (J. B. Bailey, 1940, p. 105). 
In 1694, Vargas visited Sia, where he was welcomed by the Indians 
who had returned to their homes. He placed a missionary, Fray 
Juan Alpuente, in charge of the pueblo. He then told the Indians 
that they must elect officers, but they told him they had already 
done so. ‘The officials were consequently given their oaths and 
symbols [canes] of office” (ibid., p. 178). Vargas lists the officers 
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