294 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 184 
ential man was ‘not a medicineman or even a member of any of the 
secret societies or kachina dance groups.” I made a similar inquiry 
at Sia and found the situation to be much the same. The officers of 
the pueblo are undoubtedly important. They are vested with great 
authority and through them the will of the community is imposed 
on individuals. But a distinction is made, implicitly, between the 
man and the office. The cacique and the medicinemen may be per- 
sons of little ability and force of character. And the community is so 
small that almost all mature men will have held a fairly important 
office by the time they are 50 or 60. But, apart from office and 
society membership, there is room for very considerable influence by 
individuals as persons. 
In 1941, according to one of my best informants, A. P. was un- 
questionably the most influential man in Sia. He was said to be wise, 
intelligent, the best informed in “Indian lore,” far-sighted, and a man 
of great strength of character. At that time he was about 56 years 
old. He spoke little English, but was fluent in Spanish, and “spoke 
very fine Keres.”’ His discussion of issues in council meetings very 
often precipitated and determined its decisions. But A. P. was a 
member of the Snake society and the head of the sicti and the singers, 
and he had served as Masewi and as governor. As we have noted 
elsewhere (p. 182), he should not have been head of the sicti since he 
was a medicineman, but because of his ability and influence an excep- 
tion was made in his case. In my informant’s judgment, A. P. exerted 
ereat influence because of his personal qualities. 
In 1941, A. T. was said to be the next most influential man in Sia. 
He was well informed upon matters of Sia culture and “‘was a good 
talker.”” He, too, was a medicineman, the head of the Fire society. 
But here, also, my informant maintained that his influence derived 
from his personal qualities rather than from his society headship. The 
head of the Flint society, by virtue of his office, is tremendously im- 
portant, as my informant reminded me. He must be consulted on 
certain occasions, and his permission is necessary for the performance 
of certain pueblo functions. But as a person he may be a man of 
mediocre, or even inferior, ability, and, as a person, exert little or no 
influence in community affairs. In 1952 the informant who, in 1941, 
gave me the above information observed that A. T. had lost much of 
his earlier influence “because of his impatience and his hot temper.” 
PROGRESSIVES AND CONSERVATIVES 
I did not press my investigations deeply into the subject of progres- 
sives and conservatives. The situation at Sia appeared definitely to 
be much the same as at Santa Ana, which I have discussed elsewhere 
in some detail (White, 1942 a, pp. 188-189). Some men and women 
