148 ETHNOGEOGEAPHY OF THE TEWA INDIANS [eth. ann. 29 



Tsq,mq, from the pueblo. The writer has not had an opportunity to 

 look through early Span, documents for mention and forms of the 

 name Chama. The form ' ' Zama '' is used liy Zarate-Salmeron. ' So 

 far as he is aware the only other form which occurs in Span, docu- 

 ments is the now standardized Chama; San Pedro de Chama also 

 occurs. These terms, Zama, Cliama, and San Pedro de Cliama, 

 appear to have been used in Span, invariably to designate either the 

 whole Chama River district (" San Pedro de Chama, as the district 

 was called after the reoccupancj' of New Mexico"-) or the Chama 

 River itself. The diminutive form Chamita has been and is given 

 to the eastern part of the V-shaped tract of lowland formed by the 

 confluence of the Chama River with the Rio Grande, and to the 

 Mexican settlement made there. The latter place and settlement 

 have been or are also called San Gabriel del Yunque and San Gabriel 

 deChamita, oreven merely San Gabriel. See [13:28]. "The name 

 Chamita dates from the eighteenth century, and was given in order 

 to distinguish it from the settlements higher up on the Chama 

 River."- Now Span. Zama, Chama, evidentl}' come from Tewa 

 Tsdmq., name of the former Tewa pueblo [5:7], applied also to 

 several other places near that pueblo. Since there is much land 

 good for agriculture in the vicinit}' of that pueblo, the wi'iter 

 believes that one of the Span, settlements higher up on the Chama 

 River in contradistinction to which Chamita gets its name, was at 

 Tsqniq-. At any rate, the tirst extensive farming land encountered 

 in going up the Chama valley after leaving the region about the 

 Canoe Mesa near San Juan [5:&5] is at Tsilmq-, and it is not at all 

 strange that the name Ts^m/i- was taken over into Span, and 

 applied first to a more or less definite region up the Chama Valley, 

 as the Tewa applied it, then to the whole Chama River region, 

 and more recently especially to the Chama River itself. It was 

 forgotten long ago \iy the Mexicans, if indeed it was ever clearly 

 understood by them, that Tsqmq- is properly only the name 

 of a former Tewa pueblo and of a little round hill, a marsh, and 

 rich bottom-lands which lie beside it. What relation the name 

 Placita Rio Chama [5:10] bears to the names discussed above is 

 impossible to determiuc without historical evidence. It is always 

 called Placita Rio Chama 'Chama River town' and never Placita 

 Chama. The settlement may be called by this name for no other 

 reason than because it is in the Chama River valley. In going 

 up the river it is the first compact Mexican settlement met after 

 passing [5:33] and entering the narrower part of the Chama 

 River valley. From Chama applied to the Chama River the 



'Quoted by Bandelier, Final Report, pt. Ii, p. 60, 3892. 

 2Bandelier, ibid., p. 62. 



