Summary Of Explorers In Eden By Jerold Auerbach

Reading Response (Auerbach on Cushing):
In chapter one of Explorers in Eden by Jerold Auerbach titled “Cushing in Zuni”, Auerbach gives a detailed summary of Frank Hamilton Cushing’s five year experience in the Zuni Pueblo. I was surprised to learn that Cushing was only a young teen when he came to Zuni. Additionally, I was shocked to read that Cushing had no formal training in Anthropology… in fact he didn’t even graduate from Cornell rather he worked at a very young age at the Smithsonian. Thus, my and many others critiques of Cushing stem back to his lack of anthropological training and Native American education. It seems as if Cushing had always been fascinated with indigenous people as Auerbach remarks early in the piece that Cushing “foraged” for Indian artifacts as a child. This obsession and intrusion of Native peoples explains Cushing’s unethical

Cushing and his expedition members had originally planned on staying for a couple of days at Zuni. Yet, without invitation or permission, Cushing decided to stay longer. He told the Zuni governor that he would leave in two months but alas he stayed for five years. This intrusiveness set the tone for the rest of his approach. His approach to studying the people was immature, blunt, and not planned out. Not only did he invade the privacy of the people by requiring food as well as lodging, drawing sacred ceremonies, and not communicating clearly but when the Zuni people objected to his behavior he would not compromise and on some occasions he drew out a knife and threatened the people. Additionally, Cushing was highly uneducated concerning the Zunis and this lead to false assumptions about them. For example, he noted that their lives had changed little since the Spanish had come to the area, when in fact the Zuni and other Pueblo people adopted many crafts from the Spanish. If Cushing had a formal education, maybe he would have known