144 ETHNOGEOGRAPHY OF THE TEW A INDIANS If.th. asn. 29 



The puc])lo ruiu is a quarter of a mile northeast of the Spanish- 

 American Normal School. It consists of indistinct mounds 

 which lie in a field. Potsherds of red ware may be picked up 

 from the mound. According to San Juan informants this was 

 a Tewa pueblo and its old name was the name given above 

 under Tewa (1). This is all the information that could be 

 obtained about it. 



[4:8] S:r.pxii_x^q)jiciheji '' Scepxice Pueblo ruin' {SxpcEim unexplained 

 except that -we is probabl_v the locative postfix used in the Nanibe 

 dialect moaning 'at' 'up at'; 'qyioikeji 'pueblo ruin' <''o>jiri 

 'pueblo,' hjl 'ruin' postfix). An effort has been made to get the 

 explanation of this name at San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ilde- 

 fonso, and especially at Nambe, where the old Winter Cacique 

 thought a long time about it. The meaning of the word has been 

 forgotten by the Tewa. '"Se-pa-ua".' "Se-pa-ue".^ "Sepaue".^ 

 "Sepawi".* 



This ruin is described b}' Bandelier ^ and by Hewett.^ Accord- 

 ing to Bandelier it is the lai'gest ruin in New Mexico. "Les 

 traditions rattachent cette tribu [Nambe] a celle des Sepawi 

 sur I'oued El Rito, dans la vallee du Chama."" "A 9 niilles an 

 sud-oiiest d'Ojo Caliente, dans la vallee El Rito, on aper^oit Se- 

 pawi, I'une des plus grandes mines de la region Pueblo . . . On 

 n'en connait pas I'histoire, mais, d'apres la tradition, ce serait 

 le village actuel de Nambe, a [20] niilles a vol d'oiseau au sud- 

 est."* The old Winter Cacique of Nambe informed the writer that 

 Nambe people or Tewa used to live at Sxpse.ve, but this informa- 

 tion had to be gained as an answer to a leading question. A num- 

 ber of Tewa were found who knew of Siepsewe ruin, but not one who 

 seemed to know definitely that Nambe people used to live there. 

 It is generally known that it is a Tewa ruin. The writer is un- 

 able to understand from reading Bandelier and Hewett on which 

 side of El Rito Ci'eek the ruiu is situated. According to Hewett,' 

 "Sepawi" is located on the east side of El Rito Creek: three San 

 Juan informants and the old Winter Cacique of Nambe stated that 

 the ruin is on the west side of the creek, but perhaps they were led 

 to saj' this because they know the ruin is near El Rito town and 

 that the latter is on the west side. 



[4:!»J (1) Kasita. (<Span.). =Eng. (3), Span. (4). 



(2) Tec[ica\' 'little house', translating Span. (4) {teqioa 'house' 

 <te 'dwelling-place', qiva indicating hollowness or receptacle; 'e 



' Biindelier, Final Report, pi, n, p. 17. IsW. 



2 Ibid., p. 51. 



» Ibid., p. 52. 



« Hewett: General View, p. 597, 1905; Antiquities, p. 10, 19015; Communnuti^.s, pp. 33, II, 99, 190S. 



^ Bandelier, op. cit., pp. 51-52. 



« Antiquities, No. 38, 1906; Communantes, jip. :i:!, 41, 1908. 



' Iliid., p. 33. » Ibid., p. 41. » Antiquities, pi. xviT. 



