10 THE SIA. 



and crosses were erected, and good quarters provided them. He caused the inhab- 

 itants to l)e assemhled, when he explained to tliem the object of his visit and the man- 

 ner in which he intended to punish all the rebellious Indians. This concluded, the 

 usual ceremonies of taking possession, baptism and absolution, took place.' 



And the Sia were again nniler Spanish thraldom; but though they 

 made this outward show of submitting to the new faith, neither then 

 nor since have they wavered in their devotion to their aboriginal re- 

 ligion. 



The ruins upon the mesa, showing weJl-deiined walls of rectangular 

 stone structures northwest of the present village, are of considerable 

 magnitude, covering many acres. (PI. ii.) The Indians, however, 

 declare this to have been the great farming districts of Po-shai-yan-ue 

 (quasi messiah), each field being divided from the others by a stone 

 wall, and that their village was on the mesa eastward of the present one. 



The distance from the water and the field induced the Sia to return 

 to their old home, but wars, pestilence, and oppression seem to have 

 been their heritage. When not contending with the marauding nomad 

 and Mexican, they were suffering the effects of disease, and between 

 murder and epidemic these people have been reduced to small numbers. 

 Tlie Sia declare that this condition of affairs continued, to a greater or 

 less degree, with but short periods of resjjite, until the murders were 

 arrested by the intervention of our Government. For this they are 

 profoundly grateful, and they are willing to attest their gratitude in 

 every possible way. 



The Sia to-day number, according to the census taken in 1890, lOG, 

 and though they no longer suffer at the murderous hand of an enemy, 

 they have to contend against such diseases as smallpox and diphtheria, 

 and it will require but a few more scourges to obliterate this remnant 

 of a people. They are still harassed on all sides by depredators, much 

 as they were of old; and long-continued struggle has not only resulted 

 in the depletion of their numbers, but also in mental deterioration. 



The Sia resemble the other pueblo Indians; indeed, so strikingly 

 alike are they in physical structure, complexion, and customs that they 

 might be considered one and the same people, had it not been discovered 

 through philological investigation that the languages of the pueblo 

 Indians have been evolved from four distinct stocks. 



Sia is situated upon an elevation at the base of which flows the 

 Jeiuez river. The Rio Salado empties into the Jemez some 4 miles 

 above Sia and so impregnates the water.s of the Jemez with salt that 

 while it is at all times most unpalatable, in the summer season when 

 the river is drained above, the water becomes undrinkable, and yet it 

 is this or nothing with the Sia. 



For neighbors they have the people of the pueblo of Santa Ana, 6 

 miles to the southeast, who speak the same language, with but slight 

 variiition, and the pueblo of Jemez, 7 miles north, whose language, 

 according to Powell's classification, is of another stock, the TaQoan. 



1 Davia, Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, 1869, pp. 351,352. 



