Part 1

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION—BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY.

THE SIA.

BY MATILDA COXE STEVENSON.

CONTENTS.

Page. Introduction 9

Cosmogony 26

Cult societies 69

Theurgistic rites 73 Rain ceremonial of the Snake society 76 Rain ceremonial of the Giant society 91 Four-night ceremonial of the Giant society for the healing of a sick boy 97 Rain ceremonial of the Knife society 101 Society of the Quer´ränna 112 Rain ceremonial of the Quer´ränna society 113 Other societies 116 Society of the cougar 118 Society of Warriors 121

Songs 123 A rain song of the Shū´wi Chai´än (Snake society) A song of the Shū´wi Chai´än (Snake society) for healing the sick 125 A rain song of the Sko´yo Chai´än (Giant society) 126 A song of the Sko´yo Chai´än (Giant society) for healing the sick 127 A rain song of the His´tiän Chai´än (Knife society) 128 Portion of a rain song of the His´tiän Chai´än (Knife society) 129 A rain song of the Quer´ränna Chai´än 130 Prayer for sick infant 130

Childbirth 132

Mortuary customs and beliefs 143

Myths 146 The Coyote encounters disappointment 147 The Coyote and the Cougar 154 The Coyote and the Rattlesnake 156 The Skatona 157

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page.

PL. I. A view of Sia, showing a portion of village in ruins 8

II. Plaza, Sia 10

III. Sisters; cleverest artists in ceramics in Sia 12

IV. Group of Sia vases 14

V. The Oracle 16

VI. Stone house showing plaster on exterior 22

VII. Stampers at work 24

VIII. Pounders completing work 26

IX. I-är-ri-ko, a Sia fetich 40

X. Personal adornment when received into third degree of official membership in Cult society (_A_, Ko-shai-ri; _B_, Quer´-rän-na; _C_, Snake society 70

XI. Hä´-cha-mo-ni before plume offerings are attached (_A_, hä´-cha-mo-ni and official staff deposited for Sûs sĭs-tin-na-ko; _B_, hä´-cha-mo-ni and official staff deposited for the sun; _C_, hä´-cha-mo-ni and official staff deposited for the cloud priest of the north; _D_, hä´-cha-mo-ni and official staff deposited for the cloud priest of the west; _E_, hä´-cha-mo-ni and official staff deposited for the cloud priest of the zenith) 74

XII. Hä´-cha-mo-ni with plume offerings attached (_F_, hä´-cha-mo-ni deposited for the Sia woman of the north and of the west; _G_, hä´-cha-mo-ni offered to the cloud woman of the cardinal points; _H_, gaming block offered to the cloud people; _I_, hä´-cha-mo-ni and official staff deposited for the snake ho´-na-ai-te of the north) 76

XIII. Hä´-cha-mo-ni with plumes attached (_A_, deposited for cloud priest of the north; _B_, deposited for Ho-chan-ni, arch ruler of the cloud priests of the world; _C_, deposited for cloud woman of the north; _D_, bunch of plumes offered apart from hä´-cha-mo-ni; _E_, bunch of plumes offered apart from hä´-cha-mo-ni) 78

XIV. Altar and sand painting of Snake society 80

XV. Altar of Snake society 82

XVI. Ceremonial vase 84

XVII. Vice ho´-na-ai-te of Snake society 86

XVIII. Altar and sand painting of Giant society (_A_, altar; _B_, sand painting) 90

XIX. Altar of Giant society photographed during ceremonial 92

XX. Ho´-na-ai-te of Giant society 94

XXI. Sick boy in ceremonial chamber of Giant society 96

XXII. Altar and sand painting of Knife society 98

XXIII. Altar of Knife society photographed during ceremonial 100

XXIV. Ho´-na-ai-te of Knife society 102

XXV. Altar of Knife society, with ho´-na-ai-te and vice ho´-na-ai-te on either side 104

XXVI. Shrine of Knife society 108

XXVII. Shrine of Knife society 110

XXVIII. Altar of Quer´-rän-na society 112

XXIX. Altar of Quer´-rän-na society 114

XXX. Ho´-na-ai-te of Quer´-rän-na society 116

XXXI. Sia masks (A, masks of the Ká-ᵗsû-na; B, mask of female Ká-ᵗsû-na; C, masks of the Ká-ᵗsû-na) 118

XXXII. Sia masks (A, masks of the Ká-ᵗsû-na; B, masks of female Ká-ᵗsû-na) 120

XXXIII. Prayer to the rising sun 122

XXXIV. Personal adornment when received into the third degree of official membership of Cult society (A, spider; B, cougar; C, fire; D, Knife and Giant; E, costume when victor is received into society of Warriors; F, body of warrior prepared for burial, only the face, hands, and feet being painted) 140

XXXV. Ceremonial water vases; Sia (A, a cross emblematic of the rain from the cardinal points; B, faces of the cloud men; C, faces of the cloud women; D, clouds and rain; E, vegetation; F, dragonfly, symbolic of water) 146

Fig. 1. Sia women on their way to trader’s to dispose of pottery 12

2. Sia women returning from trader’s with flour and corn 13

3. Pauper 18

4. Breaking the earth under tent 21

5. Women and girls bringing clay 22

6. Women and girls bringing clay 23

7. Depositing the clay 24

8. Mixing the clay with the freshly broken earth 25

9. Women sprinkling the earth 26

10. The process of leveling 27

11. Stampers starting to work 28

12. Mixing clay for plaster 29

13. Childish curiosity 30

14. Mask of the sun, drawn by a theurgist 36

15. Diagram of the White House of the North, drawn by a theurgist 58

16. The game of Wash´kasi 60

17. Sand painting as indicated in Plate XXV 102

18. Sand painting used in ceremonial for sick by Ant society 103

19. Sia doctress 133

20. Mother with her infant four days old 142

THE SIA.

BY MATILDA COXE STEVENSON.[1]

INTRODUCTION.

All that remains of the once populous pueblo of Sia is a small group of houses and a mere handful of people in the midst of one of the most extensive ruins of the Southwest (Pl. I) the living relic of an almost extinct people and a pathetic tale of the ravages of warfare and pestilence. This picture is even more touching than the infant’s cradle or the tiny sandal found buried in the cliff in the canyon walls. The Sia of to-day is in much the same condition as that of the ancient cave and cliff dweller as we restore their villages in imagination.

The cosmogony and myths of the Sia point to the present site as their home before resorting to the mesa, which was not, however, their first mesa home; their legends refer to numerous villages on mountain tops in their journeying from the north to the center of the earth.

The population of this village was originally very large, but from its situation it became a target during intertribal feuds. A time came, however, when intertribal strife ceased, and the pueblo tribes united their strength to oppose a common foe, an adversary who struck terror to the heart of the Indian, inasmuch as he not only took possession of their villages and homes, but was bent upon uprooting the ancestral religion to plant in its stead the Roman Catholic faith. To avoid this result the Sia fled to the mesa and built a village, but the foe was not to be thus easily baffled and the mesa village was brought under subjection. That these people again struggled for their freedom is evident from the report of Vargas of his visit there in 1692:

The pueblo had been destroyed a few years before by Cruzate, but it had not been rebuilt. The troops entered it the next morning. It was situated upon the mesa of Cerro Colorado, and the only approach to it was up the side of the plateau by a steep and rocky road. The only thing of value found there was the bell of the convent, which was ordered to be buried. The Indians had built a new village near the ruins of the old one. When they saw the Spaniards approach they came forth to meet and bid them welcome, carrying crosses in their hands, and the chiefs marching at their heads. In this manner they escorted Vargas and his troops to the plaza, where arches and crosses were erected, and good quarters provided them. He caused the inhabitants to be assembled, when he explained to them the object of his visit and the manner in which he intended to punish all the rebellious Indians. This concluded, the usual ceremonies of taking possession, baptism and absolution, took place.[2]

And the Sia were again under Spanish thraldom; but though they made this outward show of submitting to the new faith, neither then nor since have they wavered in their devotion to their aboriginal religion.

The ruins upon the mesa, showing well-defined walls of rectangular stone structures northwest of the present village, are of considerable magnitude, covering many acres. (Pl. II.) The Indians, however, declare this to have been the great farming districts of Pó-shai-yän-ne (quasi messiah), each field being divided from the others by a stone wall, and that their village was on the mesa eastward of the present one.

The distance from the water and the field induced the Sia to return to their old home, but wars, pestilence, and oppression seem to have been their heritage. When not contending with the marauding nomad and Mexican, they were suffering the effects of disease, and between murder and epidemic these people have been reduced to small numbers. The Sia declare that this condition of affairs continued, to a greater or less degree, with but short periods of respite, until the murders were arrested by the intervention of our Government. For this they are profoundly grateful, and they are willing to attest their gratitude in every possible way.

The Sia to-day number, according to the census taken in 1890, 106, and though they no longer suffer at the murderous hand of an enemy, they have to contend against such diseases as smallpox and diphtheria, and it will require but a few more scourges to obliterate this remnant of a people. They are still harassed on all sides by depredators, much as they were of old; and long continued struggle has not only resulted in the depletion of their numbers, but also in mental deterioration.

The Sia resemble the other pueblo Indians; indeed, so strikingly alike are they in physical structure, complexion, and customs that they might be considered one and the same people, had it not been discovered through philological investigation that the languages of the pueblo Indians have been evolved from four distinct stocks.

Sia is situated upon an elevation at the base of which flows the Jemez river. The Rio Salado empties into the Jemez some 4 miles above Sia and so impregnates the waters of the Jemez with salt that while it is at all times most unpalatable, in the summer season when the river is drained above, the water becomes undrinkable, and yet it is this or nothing with the Sia.

For neighbors they have the people of the pueblo of Santa Ana, 6 miles to the southeast, who speak the same language, with but slight variation, and the pueblo of Jemez, 7 miles north, whose language, according to Powell’s classification, is of another stock, the Tañoan.

The Mexican town of San Ysidro is 5½ miles above Sia, and there are several Mexican settlements north of Jemez. The Mexican town of Bernalillo is on the east bank of the Rio Grande, 17½ miles eastward.

Though Protestant missionaries have been stationed at the pueblo of Jemez since 1878, no attempt has been made to bring the Sia within the pale of Protestantism. The Catholic mission priest who resides at Jemez makes periodical visits to the Sia, when services are held, marriages performed, infants baptized, and prayers offered for the dead.

The missions at Cia and Jemez were founded previous to 1617 and after 1605. They existed without interruption until about 1622, when the Navajos compelled the abandonment of the two churches at San Diego and San Joseph of Jemez. About four years later, through the exertions of Fray Martin de Arvide, these missions were reoccupied, and remained in uninterrupted operation until August 10, 1680. The mission at Cia, as far as I know, suffered no great calamity until that date. After the uprising of 1680 the Cia mission remained vacant until 1694. Thence on it has been always maintained, slight temporary vacancies excepted, up to this day. The mission of San Diego de Jemez was occupied in 1694 by Fray Francisco de Jesus, whom the Indians murdered on the 4th of June of 1696. In consequence of the uprising on that day, the Jemez abandoned their country, and returned, settling on the present site of their pueblo only in 1700. The first resident priest at Jemez became Fray Diego Chabarria, in 1701. Since that date I find no further interruption in the list of missionaries.[3]

The Sia are regarded with contempt by the Santa Ana and the Jemez Indians, who never omit an opportunity to give expression to their scorn, feeling assured that this handful of people must submit to insult without hope of redress. Limited intertribal relations exist, and these principally for the purpose of traffic.

Though the Sia have considerable irrigable lands, they have but a meager supply of water, this being due to the fact that after the Mexican towns above them and the pueblo of Jemez have drawn upon the waters of the Jemez river, little is left for the Sia, and in order to have any success with their crops they must curtail the area to be cultivated. Thus they never raise grain enough to supply their needs, even with the practice of the strictest economy according to Indian understanding, and therefore depend upon their more successful neighbors who labor under no such difficulties. The Jemez people have no lack of water supply, and the Santa Ana have their farming districts on the banks of the Rio Grande. Is it strange, then, that two pueblos are found progressing, however slowly, toward a European civilization, while the Sia, though slightly influenced by the Mexicans, have, through their environment, been led not only to cling to autochthonic culture but to lower their plane of social and mental condition?

The Sia women labor industriously at the ceramic art as soon as their grain supply becomes reduced, and the men carry the wares to their unfriendly neighbors for trade in exchange for wheat and corn. While the Santa Ana and Jemez make a little pottery, it is very coarse in texture and in form; in fact, they can not be classed as pottery-making Indians. (Pl. III.)

As long as the Sia can induce the traders through the country to take their pottery they refrain from barter with their Indian neighbors. (Pl. IV.) The women usually dispose of the articles to the traders (Figs. 1 and 2), but they never venture on expeditions to the Santa Ana and the Jemez.

Each year a period comes, just before the harvest time, when no more pottery is required by their Indian neighbors, and the Sia must deal out their food in such limited portions that the elders go hungry in order to satisfy the children. When starvation threatens there is no thought for the children of the clan, but the head of each household looks to the wants of its own, and there is apparent indifference to the sufferings of neighbors. When questioned, they reply: “We feel sad for our brothers and our sisters, but we have not enough for our own.” Thus when driven to extremes, nature asserts itself in the nearest ties of consanguinity and the “clan” becomes secondary. At these times there are no expressions of dissatisfaction and no attempt on the part of the stronger to take advantage of the weaker. The expression of the men changes to a stoical resignation, and the women’s faces grow a shade paler with the thought that in order to nourish their babes they themselves must be nourished. And yet, such is their code of hospitality that food is always offered to guests as long as a morsel remains.

So like children are these same stoical and patient people that the tears of sorrow are quickly dispelled by the sunshine of success. When their crops are gathered they hold their saints’ day feast, when the Indians from near and far (even a few of the unfriendly Indians lending their unwelcome presence) surfeit at their board. These public dances and feasts of thanksgiving in honor of their patron saint, upon the gathering of their crops, which occur in all the Rio Grande pueblos, present a queer mixture of pagan and Christian religion. The priest owes his success in maintaining a certain influence with these people since the accession of New Mexico to the United States, by non-interference with the introduction of their forms and dances into the worship taught by the church. Hence the Rio Grande Indians are professedly Catholics; but the fact that these Indians and the Mission Indians of California have preserved their religions, admitting them to have been more or less influenced by Catholicism, and hold their ceremonials in secret, practicing their occult powers to the present time, under the very eye of the church, is evidence not only of the tenacity with which they cling to their ancient customs, but of their cunning in maintaining perfect seclusion.

When Maj. Powell visited Tusayan, in 1870, he was received with marked kindness by the Indians and permitted to attend the secret ceremonials of their cult. The writer is of the opinion that he was the first and only white man granted this privilege by any of the pueblo Indians previous to the expedition to Zuñi, in 1879, by Mr. Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology.

The writer accompanied Mr. Stevenson on this occasion and during his succeeding investigations among the Zuñi, Tusayan, and the Rio Grande Pueblos. And whenever the stay was long enough to become acquainted with the people the confidence of the priestly rulers and theurgists was gained, and after this conciliation all efforts to be present at the most secret and sacred performances observed and practiced by these Indians were successful. Their sociology and religion are so intricately woven together that the study of the one can not be pursued without the other, the ritual beginning at birth and closing with death.

While the religion of the Rio Grande Indians bears evidence of contact with Catholicism, they are in fact as non-Catholic as before the Spanish conquest. Their environment by the European civilization of the southwest is, however, slowly but surely effecting a change in the observances of their cabalistic practices. For example, the pueblo of Laguna was so disturbed by the Atlantic and Pacific railroad passing by its village that first one and then another of its families lingered at the ranch houses, reluctant to return to their communal home, where they must come in contact with the hateful innovations of their land; and so additions were made to render the summer house more comfortable for the winter, and after a time a more substantial structure supplanted the temporary abode, and the communal dwelling was rarely visited except to comply with the religious observances. Some of these homes were quite remote from the village, and the men having gradually increased their stock of cattle found constant vigilance necessary to protect them from destruction by the railroad and the hands of the cowboy; and so first one and then another of the younger men ventured to be absent from a ceremonial in order to look up some stray head of cattle, until the aged men cried out in horror that their children were forgetting the religion of their forefathers.

The writer knew of but one like delinquent among the Zuñi when she was there in 1886. A son of one of the most bigoted priests in the village had become so eager to possess an American wagon, and his attention was so absorbed in looking after his cattle with a view to the accumulation of means whereby to purchase a wagon, that he dared to absent himself from a most important and sacred ceremonial, notwithstanding the current belief that for such impiety the offender must die within four days. The father denounced him in the strongest terms, declaring he was no longer his son. And the man told the writer, on his return to the village, “that he was afraid because he staid away, and he guessed he would die within four days, but some of his cattle had strayed off and he feared the cowboy.” The fourth day passed and the man still lived, and the scales dropped from his eyes. From that time his religious duties were neglected in his eagerness for the accumulation of wealth.