PAKsoxs] ISLETA, NEW MEXICO 211 



ECONOMIC LIFE 



The Isletans, like other Pueblo Indians, are primarily farmers. 

 As elsewhere, the staple crops are com and wheat, grown on irrigated 

 land, although wheat may be planted in February, before the work of 

 irrigatmg is begun, if the ground is sufficiently wet from winter snows 

 or rains. Vegetable crops — onions and peas or beans — are planted in 

 January. The March winds, we may note, are hard on the crops, 

 even harder than frost. Alfalfa is grown — two plantings, one in May, 

 one in August. Cotton is grown, enough for ritual use as well as for 

 weaving into belts, and 500 pounds are sold out of town. On the 

 outskirts of town there are orchards and vineyards, unrivaled by other 

 pueblos.** Grapevines are now yielding to alfalfa. A family is 

 allowed one barrel of wine by the agent, and wine may not be sold. 



Flocks and herds are scant. There used to be "lots of sheep," but 

 the people have been selling them off, so that to-day only two men 

 have flocks. Only 10 or 12 men keep cattle. There are some pigs. 

 The usual time for butchering is in connection with the last night of a 

 ceremony when food dishes are to be contributed by attendants. 



There are the usual rabbit drives. The rabbit stick of the false 

 boomerang type is known,*^ but probably little used. There is stUl 

 some deer hunting, and only a few years ago a man went antelope 

 hunting in the JicarUla Mountains. Now and again a wildcat is kUled, 

 of which the skin sells for about $5. Bear are not killed."" Eagles 

 are shot; the pit snare and nest robbing were unfamiliar methods." 

 There is an eagle hmit before an initiation mto the medicine societies. 

 There is no domestication of eagles because people might forget to 

 feed their birds and the birds would get angrj^, like the eagle of the 

 town chief of Berkwjtoe'.** . . . There is a baited horsehair trap for 

 bluebirds whose feathers are used in prayer feathers. The snared 

 bird will be plucked and then released. Snowbirds (upoowe') are 

 also snared. Boys use slings. Fish are caught by hook and net, and 

 eaten at pleasure, according to Juan Abeita. LucLnda said that 

 boys might catch fish in the drainage ditch, but people would not 

 eat them. "We do not eat fish," said she most emphatically, and 

 she would not eat the smoked salmon I once offered her.*' The horned 

 toad (koale kireude, sheep droppings, full of marks) is sometimes 

 caught and with a piece of yam tied around its neck it is told to go 

 and make a manta or belt.^" 



" Cp. Census, US. 

 " See p. 377. 

 •« See pp. 338-339. 



*" But for the latter method, see p. 379. 

 '^ See p. 380. 



•• .'llthough trout and an edible sucker abound In the Pecos River, no fishbones have been found in I he 

 rubbish piles of Pecos, writes Doctor Kidder, and he infers that they did not eat fish at Pecos. 

 " Compare Laguna, Zuni, and I'ima practices. (Parsons, 12; 196, n. 3.) 



