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.