Missionary versus Ethnographer, the Integration into Native American Life

Eliot’s religious conversion of Native Americans renders him as a hero similar Cushing’s research with the Zunis. Eliot integrated himself into the community to learn the language and impose his religious teachings. “He partook of their hard fare, and was exposed to the attacks of the beasts of the forests…” (Small vi). The word choices of “hard fare” and “beasts” portray the Native American’s lifestyle as lesser and depict Eliot as a hero to sacrifice his daily comfort for their conversion. Missionary or anthropologist as hero is defined chapter eight of Skull Wars, “The Anthropologist as Hero.” Frank Cushing, an anthropologist, took on the hero role while living with the Zuni Pueblo.  Similarly to Eliot, Cushing immersed himself into Zuni life, establishing a new way of doing ethnographic fieldwork known as the “Cushing experiment” (Thomas 72). 

Though Eliot and Cushing were pioneers through their integration into Native American life and language, there are differences in their goals as a missionary and researcher. Eliot faced opposition to religious conversion, “The Indian chiefs, and powaws or conjurors, however, were greatly opposed to the gospel” (Small xii). Cushing encountered similar opposition from the Zunis, “But the residents of Zuni Pueblo showed little interest in being studied. Sensing the hostility and mistrust, Cushing boldly moved in among the Zuni people” (Thomas 73). While Eliot made religious changes in the community, Cushing took on the role of anthropologist to study the Zuni community as an observer. Eliot attempted to religiously improve the community while Cushing believed that integrating into the community would improve his research and the outside community. As a minister and an anthropologist, they glorified their struggles to integrate as part of the process to attain the reward of conversion and research respectively. 

Eliot and Cushing use language as a tool to further their goals of conversion and research. While trying to convert Native Americans, Eliot ran into difficultly due to the language barrier. To learn the language he worked with a young Native American, previously taken as a prisoner of war with knowledge of the English language (Small vii). With the help of the Native American, Eliot translated the commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and other texts of Scripture as seen in the Indian Primer and Bible fragment in the exhibit (Small vii). To spread his religious message, Eliot recognized that learning Algonquin was necessary. Eliot preached to the Native Americans in their language, which aided him in achieving his goals of spreading the religious message. Cushing also used the language to further his agenda with the Zunis. 

His command of the language improved and so did his relation with the Zuni people. Overstaying one departure after another, Cushing starting pushing his way into secret meeting and initiations. When quietly asked to leave, he pretended not to understand, and the Zuni, too polite to insist, gradually came to accept his   presence (Thomas 74).

As researcher, Cushing wanted to integrate into Zuni society to learn their customs. Though his improved language skills allowed Cushing to understand the Zunis he still used the language barrier and manipulation, acting confused, to enter secret meetings. Cushing believed “conjectural history,” the employment of Native American oral tradition, was key to accumulating archaeological materials (Thomas 74). Eliot and Cushing’s use of language improved their relationships with the Native Americans, and allowed them to pursue their goals.

Differing from each other, Eliot used language to create a change within a Native American community while Cushing used it for scientific research. Cushing uses language to cast himself as an anthropologist and converts the Zunis words for innovative research. Differently, Eliot found authority through Algonquin language to convert the “persons” in the Native Americans, altering their internal community. The use of language allows Cushing and Eliot to integrate into Native American communities, and while Eliot converts people Cushing converts their science. 

Eliot and Cushing are portrayed as heroes and use linguistics to integrate into Native American Communities. However, they differ in their roles as a missionary and a researcher, with Eliot converting people in the community and with Cushing using people as means for research. Though Eliot and Cushing’s integration into Native American societies revolutionized research and Native American linguistics, their portrayal as heroes highlights the degradation of Native American culture in early settlers and researchers.