XL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



his work was interrupted by failing health and subsequent 

 death. This valued officer of the Bureau left copious notes, 

 together with photographs and sketches, and a unique collec- 

 tion of objective material. While voluminous and detailed, 

 these notes were not reduced to a form adapted to publication. 



After Col. Stevenson's death his relict, the present author, 

 undertook the digestion and arrangement of the notes for the 

 press. This arduous task involved the examination of collec- 

 tions and, since the notes were in some respects incomplete and 

 the illustrative material defective, another \'isit to the field, with 

 attendant exposure and hardship. The work was earned for- 

 ward with indefatigable energy and zeal, and resulted in the 

 accompanying report, which is a unique and exhaustive account 

 of a decadent and rapidly changing people. Even since the 

 observations were completed the introduction of agi-ieultural 

 arts and the invasion of civilized influences have materially 

 modified the aboriginal condition of the Sia; and this record 

 must accordingly become a standard of reference concerning 

 these people for all future time. 



The Sia of the present occupy a pueblo near the confluence 

 of Rio Salado with Jemez river in New Mexico. In physical 

 characteristics they resemble the Indians of neighboring pueb- 

 los, though distinctly separated by linguistic peculiarities. 

 The present settlement is but the renmant of a once populous 

 pueblo. The history of the Sia for several centuries may be 

 derived in a general way from their traditions and myths, 

 checked by the records of the early Spanish explorers. In 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the population was 

 considerable, but the people sufi^ered from intertribal warfare, 

 and subsequently from the Spanish invaders. After several 

 vicissitudes, the pueblo was destroyed by Cruzate, as recorded 

 by Vargas, and in 1692 the Sia were brought imder the influ- 

 ence of mission rule. This influence is persistent, but it would 

 appear that the imported belief is but a veneer thinly covering 

 a primitive religion which survives to this day. 



The aboriginal belief and the cosmogony of which it forms a 

 part represent the theistic concepts so characteristic of primi- 

 tive peoples throughout this and other coiintries. Animals 



