208 ISLETA, NEW MEXICO [eth. ann. 47 



quences of its proximity I construe a familiarity "with crime which is 

 more observable at Isleta than in other pueblos. A few years ago 

 a Mexican who had killed a white man was shot and killed by an 

 Isletan," lil^ewise a Mexican who was stealing from an automobile. 

 In 1924 an Isletan policeman was killed by a negro fleeing from 

 Albuquerque. During the Christmas Eve church dance in 1925 the 

 hat of a prayerful townsman was pilfered by one of the many visiting 

 Mexicans, who spent the rest of the night in the town jail. Was it a 

 Mexican or a white man or a townsman who not long ago stole from 

 the kiva its ornate ladder, for one v/eek, returning it, according to 

 Juan Abeita who suspects a townsman, when the fear of being found 

 out by the detective of the medicine society possessed him? I did 

 not suggest to Juan Abeita that in a week a kiva ladder might easily 

 be copied for reproduction in museum or in a "picture." 



TOWN AND POPULATION 



The town which is called by the townspeople -^ Shiaw'iba,^ and 

 by their Mexican neighbors, San Agosti(n), lies on the west side of 

 the Rio Grande. On the eastern side there is a settlement of about 

 six houses, the people of which are referred to as namchut'ainin, earth 

 yellow people, or nabatortot'ainin. White Village people, who are said 

 to be "mean people," ^° also to speak a little differently, dialecticaUy, 

 from the townspeople proper. In folk tale these names refer to two 

 different groups, the Yellow Earth people being localized in the ruins 

 in the bluff" above the White Village. ^' I have heard also that from this 

 district went the immigrants to Isleta el Paso, Isleta del Sur. Before 

 the bridge was built by the Government, a decade or more ago, it was 

 the business of the White Village people to ferry passengers across the 

 river. Then came the great flood ^^ which destroyed all the houses but 

 one at White Village or Ranchito, and drowned a woman with child 

 and a youth, and led to the building of the bridge. Only recently 

 have people been returning to rebuild at Ranchito. Three miles 

 down the river (pela') lie two suburbs or ranching colonies called Shila 

 (Mexican, Chikal) ^' and T'aikabede ^^ of which the people are caUed 

 T'aikabehun. Several miles failher east rise the Manzano Moun- 

 tains. Conspicuous in the range is the peak which Isletans refer to 



i' By Escapula, the Isletan policeman, according to Orai'bi witnesses. Now, Eseapiila was a relative of 

 Pablo Abeita, and it was these charges which turned Pablo against the Laguna people- (See p. 353.) 



2» To Lummis they translated the name Shiewhibak as "knife laid on the ground to play whib." Hand- 

 book, 622. But the right translation, I surmise, is prayer feather kick stick. (See name list on p. 216.) 



2» Phonetic note; p, b indeterminate written as P; p, (indeterminate written as p; thl written as 1; i sub- 

 letter indicates nasalization; letter written above the line indicates slurring; * glottal catch; and ' breathing. 



M Compare pp. 386, 388. 



'" See pp. 386, 388. 



'" In 1905, according to Hodge. (Benavidcs, 222.) 



's Name of an unidentified bush. The river has been diverted and Shila now lies about a mile east of it. 

 Formerly people did not live here throughout the year, the houses being strictly summer or ranch houses, 



" Town chief; The district is so called because the town chief's fields lie there. 



