54 THE ACOMA INDIANS [eth. ann. 47 



all the cliildren are supposed to attend. A physician and a dentist 

 visit Acoma at intervals to examine the people. The Santa Fe 

 Railroad runs thi'ough the reservation and occasionally livestock or 

 a person is killed by a train. There is a Cathohc church in Acomita. 

 A religious organization has contributed money for the repair of the 

 old Spanish mission at old Acoma. There is a trading post near the 

 reservation where most of the Acoma people trade. Once in a w hile 

 there is some difticidty with accounts. Tourists visit old Acoma every 

 summer in considerable numbers. Occasionally liquor ("white mule," 

 or "mula blanca") is brought into the pueblo by Mexicans and sold 

 to the Indians. Occasionally some one with juany sheep wishes to 

 lease land from the Government (State or Federal). 



This indicates the nature and range of the governor's business. 

 His is really a difficidt position. He has to obey the priests and work 

 with the whites. He is frequently caught between the cacicpie at old 

 Acoma on one side and the superintendent in Albuquerque and the 

 Government farmer in Acomita on the other. Many orders from the 

 superintendent at Albuquerciue are transmitted to the governor 

 through the farmer at Acomita and, according to the disposition of 

 this farmer, enforced. The governor must deal with such matters as 

 whether the children attend school or not; the sending of children to 

 schools in Albuquerque and Santa Fe; the sending of patients with 

 tuberculosis and trachoma to the hospital at old Laguna; the repair 

 of pueblo roads; the maintenance of the irrigation system; trespassing 

 on the reservation by aUens (Uvestock or people); the suppression of 

 bootlegging; the i-egidation of the tourists; the Catholic priest who 

 visits Acomita occasionally (the governor usually acts as interpreter, 

 translating the sermon and announcements from Spanish to Keresan); 

 the summoning of men for any communal labor project, such as repair- 

 ing the old mission at old Acoma, etc. The governor spends a great 

 deal of his tune with liis work. He has conferences with the Govern- 

 ment farmer, with the Catholic priest, sometimes with the school 

 teachers or Government doctors, with the principales, and occasionally 

 with the priests. 



In addition 'to attending to matters which involve non-Acoma 

 agencies, the governor's diities include the supervision of intrapueblo 

 aflairs to some extent. Occasionally domestic or marital troubles are 

 brought to him; or disputes over property or minor quarrels of any 

 kind." 



In connection with ceremonies, too, the governor has duties to 

 perform. At minor fiestas he is the officer in charge. When masked 



<i Just what his authority is in such cases I could not determine. It seems that he usually has "a meet- 

 ing" which is attended by the disputants and perhaps by one of his tenientes and some principales. They 

 "talk it over," and from this meeting there seems to emerge a consensus of opinion which is respected by 

 everyone concerned. Ttowever, I witnessed one case in which the governor sentenced a young man to 

 several days' work on the roads for buying mula blanca from a Mexican and getting drunk with it. 



