THE SI A 



By Matilda Goxb Stevenson.' 



INTRODUCTION. 



All that remains of the ouce populous pueblo of Sia is a small group 

 of houses and a mere handful of people in the midst of one of the 

 most extensive ruins of the Southwest (PI. i) the living relic of an 

 almost extinct people and a pathetic tale of the ravages of Avarfare 

 and pestilence. This picture is even more touching than the infant's 

 cradle or the tiny sandal found buried in the clifl" in the canyon walls. 

 The Sia of today is in much the same condition as that of the ancient 

 cave and clilf dweller as we restore their villages in imagination. 



The cosmogony and myths of the Sia point to the present site as 

 their home before resorting to the mesa, which was not, however, their 

 first mesa home; their legends refer to numerous villages on mountain 

 tops in their journeying from the north to Ihe center of the earth. 



The population of this village was originally very large, but from its 

 situation it became a target during intertribal feuds. A time came, 

 however, when intertribal strife ceased, and the pueblo tribes united 

 their strength to oppose a common foe, an adversary who struck ter- 

 ror to the heart of the Indian, inasmuch as he not only took possession 

 of their villages and homes, but was bent upon uprooting the ancestral 

 religion to plant in its stead the Eoman Catholic faith. To avoid this 

 result the Sia fled to the mesa and built a village, but the foe was not 

 to be thus easily baffled and the mesa village was brought under sub- 

 jection. That these people again struggled for their freedom is evident 

 from the report of Vargas of his visit there in 1692: 



The pueblo had been destroyed a few years before by Cruzate, but it had not beeu 

 rebuilt. The troops entered it the next morning. It was situated upon the luesa of 

 Cerro Colorado, and the only approach to it was up tlie side of the plateau by a steep 

 and rocky road. The only thing of value found there was the bell of the convent, 

 which was ordered to be buned. The Indians had built anew village near the ruins 

 of the old one. When they saw the Spaniards apjiroach they came forth to meet and 

 bid them welcome, carrying crosses in their bands, and the chiefs marching at their 

 heads. In this raannerthey escorted Vargas and his troops to the plaza, where arches 



'The author mentions gratefully the share of this work performed by her late husband, Mr. James 

 Stevenson, whose notes taken durin-i his last year's work in the field have been freely used by her 

 and whose life interest in the North j\.meri<'an Indians has been her inspiration. 



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